Headache
by CyndarDragon
Summary: Chloe's once commonplace life flips backwards after an unexpected storm which left her stuck in Sly 2. In the world of anthros where she's the only human, she has to work with the gang and possibly something much more. Sorry, no mary-sue.
1. Hello?

**In order to not have to write this disclaimer in every single chapter, for the entire story everything is copyrighted to other peoples, i.e. Sucker Punch (the creators of Sly Cooper and some other games) and other things like Mack Trucks and various video games to be mentioned. I own a few things like Chloe and some other thingy-ma-bobs ^^**

* * *

The horizon was the color of moldy cheese.

And the pupil whom got to see it from the discolored windows everyday was none-other-than Chloe, a 'relatively mundane' teenager among thousands and thousands of other teenagers. First things first; whoever thinks that living in Freeport, Maine, is a nice, quaint, little New England thing with tiny little dancing faeries and giant moose is wrong. She didn't think of herself as anything special. With her glossy black hair, pale skin, and cadaverous body, along with her obsession for marine life and video games, she didn't receive many friends, never mind boyfriends. Brainless, incompetent jerks...they should all get hit by a bus. But alas, the stupidity pops up like those signs advertising politicians; just like a disease. One might as well even call those signs the equivalent to a plague at times, but that's not the point.

The heavily wooded area consisted of pine and oak trees that outlined the entire area, giving ideal homes for wildlife. Every so often, a deer would be spotted in a front lawn, munching away the grass that is always green thanks to the rain, but as of late, it's been as brown as a muddy cow, and all thanks go to the heat wave. She would stand on their porch and watch the animals, often speaking to them as if they could understand what it was that she said. It did, in a way, give her a sense of peace.

She lived in a small house with her parents, a bratty little sister, a dog that always barks, and a bird that never shuts up. Literally.

"Finally! Homework done!" she exclaimed, putting all of her binders into her backpack along with the pencil. She was surprised that her eighth grade homework turned out to be easier than previously thought. It was now four in the afternoon, making it a perfect time for yet another mindless video game after school.

She ran upstairs to her bedroom and carelessly threw her backpack on her twin bed. She saw Veronica's bed and sighed; seriously, out of all the asking, yelling, and negotiating, she still remains so lazy and slothful that she won't even make her own bed when asked.

She immediately forgot her anger towards Veronica. That's one thing that she can do with video games; they let her escape reality and her own personal problems as well as wordly problems by letting her forget, letting her disregard.

She was woken up rudely by a simple BEEP BEEP/BEEP BEEP/ BEEP BEEP noise. Her bright blue eyes fluttered opened at the alarm clock. 6:00. She sighed and turned it off, sluggishly getting out of bed. It went as this every day; she woke up, made her bed, collected all the laundry from the previous day, walked the dog, cleaned the dog and the bird's water bowl, scrubbed the bird's cage clean with sponge and soap, took out all the trash, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned the shower and the toilet, then watered all the plants outside. Thankfully, it was the last Friday in October…finally, the weekend was coming.

She grabbed onto her outfit, which was simply just baggy beige pants and a loose short-sleeved black shirt. She quickly put it on, putting her red pajamas back into her bureau. She made her way to the bathroom, opening up the disorganized drawer. There were hair combs everywhere and various hair elastics placed in random places, as well as an explosion of toothpaste. No one ever bothered to clean it; it'd just become a mess again…especially with her sister.

Heavy as her backpack was, it was slung over her shoulder and brought downstairs. She dropped it onto the hardwood floor as a sigh escaped her lungs. Opening up the refrigerator, she took in another breath, grabbing a random yogurt. She peeled off the top, scrapping the yellow substance off of the aluminum foil covering with a spoon and put it in with the rest of he yogurt. Yet again, she couldn't help but think about falling into the Sly 2 game. How cool would that be…being with anthropomorphic characters! She hangs out with animals, anyways….

The rest of her morning was usual. Out to the bus stop, into school, first classes, collecting homework, feeding the gerbil that bit her hand (again), then feeding the anoles that rather eat her fingers than the ever-so-expensive crickets that die often, then lunch period…however, the lunch period was not in the morning, so it was not normal.

"Hey, Chloe!" A voice yelled, coming up to her. It was her teacher, Mrs. Smith. She was the English teacher and despite her weight, she was actually very active, but she unfortunately could never rid her body of that belly. She was such a sweetheart of a lady…even if the other students didn't realize it. This was one gift of Chloe's…she was friends with all of her teachers, regardless of other student's thoughts or comments.

"Mrs. Smith?" Chloe inquired. "Something wrong?" she looked up from her sandwich which had already begun to fall apart. She wiped a bit of mustard off from the side of her face and looked up at her teacher.

"I just wanted to say that I forgot to hand out the homework for tonight. I know that I scheduled the 'Infinitive Phrases' test for Wednesday, but I know you…you're wiser than the other kids. So, it's your decision for the team. Should I not hand out homework tonight, which may be bad because it's less practice for the test, or should I just give it to everyone right now?"

Immediately, everyone at the table started yelling at Chloe to take the first offer. It was overwhelming; everyone was being loud, making it impossible for her to hear the individual words coming from people.

"Quiet!" she yelled out, but no one listened. "Quiet!" she yelled again, a little louder. Still, no one ceased their infuriating and excessive clatter. "QUIET!" the final time, strident enough for everyone to hear. They all quieted down, but because she had to repeat the simple two-syllable word many times, she decided to do the opposite thing that they had pleaded for. "Well, practice doesn't _always_ make perfect…"-she began, smiling as everyone held their breath and continued their useless staring at her with hopeful eyes-"…but this isn't one of those cases. I would hand out the homework if I were you, Mrs. Smith." What is it worth, anyways? It's just another paper that would probably take ten to twenty minutes to complete. Besides, she would have choosen that choice anyways.

"Very well, sweetheart."

"WHAT?" everyone started their insane chatter again. How irksome that was.

"HEY!" Chloe screeched. "I could make her move the test to _Tuesday_ instead! How about that?" they all went quiet again. It felt good to get a little excitement (and control) for once. However, she would not let it get to her head. She was the kind of person who enjoyed being 'in the middle' because she had less things to worry and have apprehension about.

When she arrived back at her house, she informed her mother of what had happened during lunch. She found it quite amusing, and thought that it was wonderful that her daughter had such a close friendship with her teacher, but she was always busy doing something of a different interest. Did a career _have_ to invovle so much paperwork?

She finished the rest of her homework and went upstairs to continue her game. She turned on the television and put the disk back in it. While it had loaded, she rolled the beanbag chair a good distance from the television, checked the clock, and felt relieved when she saw that Veronica wouldn't be back home for about another thirty minutes, giving her half an hour to forget everything and escape to her own little world.

She grabbed onto the black game controllers and sat down. She waited for the bouncing blue and white raccoon symbol to disappear and start the prologue of the game. However, it didn't come. She waited about two minutes longer than usual. She sighed as she thought that the game froze. She stood up and walked over to the PlayStation, pressing the button with the green light on it and holding it down for a couple of seconds. Surprisingly, it didn't turn off like how it should have, which made her slightly bemused. She waited and waited, but it never turned off. "Oh, great…." She said to herself, standing up. The blood began rushing back into her legs instantly as she straightened herself, all the while pondering as to why it wouldn't turn off. Then the thought occured; _Veronica_. That brat!

She looked behind the television to check the wiring system. Everything looked fine. She then went back over to the PlayStation and pressed the button with the blue light on it, about to take the disk out. However, the disk tray wouldn't open. She tried again and got the same result. Again. Again. Again. Nothing happened. She was bamboozled and it was becoming rather irritating.

She stood back up and yelled upstairs, "Dad! TV's messed up! Can you help?"

"Yeah, coming!" Was her response. She turned back to the TV. The screen was white.

"Oh, that's lovely…now we're going to have to get a new TV." Chloe said to herself, then muttered, "Stupid Veronica..." She was startled when an earspliting role of thunger cracked through the sky and, almost as if on cue, rain began to pelt the ground. The wind randomly began to pick up and forced the trees outside to sway.

As she turned around, she felt something grab onto her around the stomach area. She would have screamed, but she felt herself be pulled backwards at a quick pace. Then, screaming with no sound, she felt something hit the back of her head head, and she blacked out.

* * *

The raccoon's feet were moving so quickly that not even an olympic athlete could compare. He was panting, the fur on his face blowing with the air as it rushed past him. "Hold still!" A female voice yelled. He had no intention of halting.

"This wasn't part of the plan!" His turtle friend yelled as he joined in with the escape.

"Yeah, well…this is where things get fun." The raccoon said to himself. "This is getting hot! You guys go warm up the van! I'll keep Carmelita busy!" He said. He continued to run forward as his two friends darted off to the sides to safety.

"You're _all_ going to jail!" The fox bawled, her ears going down against her head.

"Pick me up at the rendezvous!" Sly shouted as he jumped forward through a window. The glass broke and he tumbled forward out onto the museum balcony. He scampered to his feet and jumped onto a clothing wire. He began running across it with such agility that it almost appeared as if he was literally running across air.

A couple of building-jumps later and he slid down a pipe to the vehicle. "FLOOR IT!" He screamed and vaulted himself into the open doors, then closed them, bracing himself.

The sound of tires screeching against the black pavement rang throughout his ears as the entire van (and everything in it) was being forced backwards at the sudden movement. The hippopotamus changed gears in the vehicle and turned the steering wheel left, which caused everything to move in the opposite direction. Sly, the poor raccoon, was being tossed about everywhere.

"Hang on, guys!" Murray yelled.

"What's it look like we're doing?" Bentley said as he clung onto the back of the passenger seat with a death-grip.

Murray switched the gears yet again and did a full one-hundred and eighty degree turn. The mix of rubber and pavement caused the ground to get four large, black tire streaks. The gears were switched again and he moved his foot from the brake to the acceleration pedal. He drove forward, dodging any cars in his way.

About thirty more minutes of near-crash experiences and they lost the cops for good. He pulled into the parking lot of the motel and turned the car off. "Woo, that was fun." The raccoon stated as he grabbed his cane and jumped out of the van along with his other two friends.

"Well, we failed at getting the Clockwerk parts." Bentley said blandly as they walked into the motel building.

"I say that we find the first member of the Klaww Gang…or at least discover who they are." Sly suggested as he rubbed his sore shoulder. Then he felt something wet on his hand and pulled it back. It was a sticky red substance smeared across the palm of his blue-gloved hand. When he tumbled through the glass, he must have had a shard stab him or at least cut him.

"Something wrong?" Bentley asked.

"I'm bleeding…darn it." He said, turning around. "How bad is it?"

He heard someone gulp.

"It looks like a little more than a scrape…."

"That bad?"

"Look, let's just you inside." Murray said and made sure that no one could see the blood on the raccoon by putting an arm around his friend.

They walked into the room and settled down. It wasn't really much for a hotel room; two queen-sized beds with green covers, yellow walls with three water-colored pictures of flowers, a wooden table with a Samsung TV, and a small bathroom. The bathroom had wallpaper (which really should not _ever_ be placed inside of a bathroom because the steam from the shower can cause the paper to curl) and the ceiling paint was literally coming off. Or rather, it was peeling itself off. The shower was nothing special, either. No one would want to take a bath in it for fear of little hopping black dots mixed in with the fallen dried paint that already looked like bird droppings when wet. The shower curtain constantly came off. Cheap one star hotels…pft.

Sly sat down on the bed and took his shirt off. He was actually quite muscular underneath the shirt. He was extremely thin, though. The knobs of his spine showed easily through his skin as well as his ribs, but despite being a hundred and ten pounds, he was very well-built after years of physically strenuous work.

Bentley took a wet towel and started to wipe the blood away from Sly's shoulder and back to thoroughly inspect the wound. He was relieved when he discovered that it was not a bullet wound, but rather just a large gash from the glass. He cleaned it out to make sure that it would not get infected in the future.

"Hold tight pal, this is going to hurt." The turtle warned as he took out the stitches.

"Oh, Jesus Christ…." Sly said and closed his eyes as he gripped the bed tightly. He felt the first stitch slide underneath his skin. It was probably only going to take about six stitches, but with no pain relief, every stitch felt agonizing.

After a couple minutes, Bentley managed to stitch the gash together.

"There, just be careful about it. Skip the shower tonight, it's not good for new stitches."

"No kidding." Sly said and relaxed his muscles. He stood up and pulled his blue jeans up a bit, then turned around to face Bentley. "Thanks pal." He said, rotating his shoulder a bit. He turned his head over to look at Murray.

"I'm gonna take a shower, guys." The hippopotamus said, then closed the door.

"I wouldn't want to take a shower in _that_ bathroom," Sly whispered to Bentley.

"It looks completely unsanitary." The longed-neck turtle agreed and shook his head.

Sly jumped onto the bed, landing on his back, immediately wishing that he hadn't. Grimacing, he sat upright and grabbed the remote to the TV. He wasn't used to not wearing a shirt. It felt weird…honestly, he's not used to having his abs show because they really did show quite well without his shirt on.

He flipped through the channels. Desperate House Wives, perhaps? He never watched it anyways. He heard one word from the show, which was plainly just 'fitness' and he switched the channel. National Geographic. Something on about Yellowstone National Park off in America. No, not interesting. He began flipping through the channels. NASCAR, MTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, and then Nickelodeon. Once he saw that Spongebob Squarepants was on, he left it at that.

"Ah! It's the Clam Burglar!" Patrick yelled, readying his pillow.

"No Patrick, it's me, Spongebob!" Spongebob said with an uncertain smile and took off the black ski mask.

"Nice try, Burglar, but Spongebob is my best friend and he would never steal from me!" The starfish yelled.

"No, really! Look!" The sponge held out his hand and showed the golden ring. The top of it opened up and showed a small display. There were two paper people, a sponge and a starfish. It went around in a circle as it sang, "We're best friends forever, best friends forever, ding!"

Sly laughed at the silly show. He'd been watching it since he first aired, which was back in 1999. He was only twelve back then. It's been his favorite show ever since.

Once it began getting late, he closed his eyes as his friends continued to watch shows. He accidentally fell asleep.

He was rudely awakened his turtle friend shaking him. He groaned and rolled himself over, saying in a tired voice, "What's up?"

"We're about to head back to Paris. The drive is going to take as long as it took to get here since we have to go through northern Africa, into Morocco and across the Strait of Gibraltar. So in plain talk…get up."

"Hmm…alright…." He said, then glanced at the clock. 4:30 a.m. _I'll sleep in the car,_ he thought to himself, lethargically standing up. He reached over for his backpack and opened up the top, grabbing a new shirt. This was on long, going down to his knees, was white and decorated with the picture of a grey dragon in the front and black vines in the back. The baggy sleeves went down to just above his elbow.

He grabbed out a small comb and brushed through his hair, then grabbed his hat and stuffed it inside of the backpack along with the bloody shirt. The blood had crusted over by now, making that section of the shirt stiff with a dark brownish color. He slung the backpack over his good shoulder and grabbed onto his cane, then walked out with his friends.

The drive took about a week. First, since they were in Egypt, they drove across all of north Africa until they made it to Morocco. They drove to the north of Morocco and to the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar was the only thing separating Morocco from Spain. The whole strait was just eight miles across and there were various ferries going back and forth across the water. Sly's gang managed to get a ferry that would allow their vehicle onboard. About an hour later, they arrived in southern Spain. They got the van off of the ferry and then began driving north to Paris, France.

Sly took out an album from the glove compartment. He grabbed onto Within Temptation's album 'Mother Earth,' then put it in the car's CD player. It started playing the first song, which he would be listening to several times since they have such a long drive to Paris.

Once they finally arrived, it was pitch black outside, and they were all tired. They didn't have much to carry so that was a good thing.

Sly walked into his room and put his bag down. It was dark inside and looked rather spooky. He had one bed that was about half the size of a king-size bed that had black covers and a large, fluffy, white pillow. The walls were a deep red but the carpet was a dark brown. There was a single window looking out to the city of Paris with a tree just right outside of it that slightly obscured the view. There was a closet off in the corner of the room with white oak doors, one of them needing to be replaced.

End tables were next to the beds with lamps on them. The room was really nothing fancy. It was a place for him to sleep, not a place for him to spend a lot of time (awake) in.

As he laid down on his bed, he was surprised by a large white flash outside. He sat upright and looked out of the window, only to see nothing. He shrugged, desperately wanting to just fall asleep in that thick-blanketed and cozy bed of his, but him, being a master thief, got curious and decided to see what it was. So he walked outside and searched around for anything unusual. After a while of searching, he found nothing and shook his head. It was dark outside, anyways. Perhaps he was just too tired and was seeing things.

As he turned around, he saw something rustle in the bushes. He cocked his head and walked over, then moved the bushes out of the way. There laid a creature that he'd never seen before.

He pulled her out from the foliage and examined her, seeing that she had long, black hair, yet was furless everywhere else. She was smooth-skinned and pale, had a flat face, no tail, no claws, no wings, no fur, scales, _or _feathers. He was confused by the creature, but that didn't really matter to him. He picked her up bridal-style and walked back inside of the Safehouse. "Hey guys, I found something." He yelled as he carefully placed the unknown creature on the couch. He put her head on the pillow and noticed that she had a very long neck that was paler than her face.

"What is it?" Bentley and Murray said at the same time as they both emerged from their rooms.

"I don't know…I've never seen something like her before," he said.

Bentley examined her quickly, agreeing with Sly. "Well…let's just wait until she wakes up, okay?"

"Mine as well…I'll watch over her…whatever this thing is."

A few minutes later and the figure began to stir. Turns out that she was only moving around in her sleep, but then started mumbling to herself. "S…s…stupid…raccoon…." She said in her sleep. Sly, being a raccoon, just cocked his head and laughed a bit. Her neck seemed so long. That part was also added to the fact that her shirt was rather low-cut anyways. Her skin was just so pale like parchment and flawless that she was, in some weird way, somewhat beautiful to look at. He moved a little closer to her, putting his snout near her ear, speaking softly to her. He stroked her head gently in a tender attempt to wake her up. "Hey, are you awake?"

The creature's eyes fluttered opened, and immediately, she screamed. It wasn't a girly scream…it was actually rather a manly scream. "Baaa!" she yelled as Sly quickly followed in with the scream.

Chloe sat upright instantly, punched him on the side of the face, and, while backing up, fell off the back of the couch. Unfazed, she quickly scampered back to her feet and yelled, "Ah! Demon anthropomorphic raccoon!"

"Demon raccoon? Where?" Sly yelled in surprise, also backing up a bit. He was rather dumbfounded and stunned.

With a scream, Chloe dashed for the fire stoke near the fireplace. "Back off! I've got a…"-she looked at the fire stoke oddly-"…stick…and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Wow. What a simply basic line.

"Whoa, calm down," sly said.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Bentley exclaimed.

"Okay, okay…can you tell me wh…" she began to say, but then started to look lightheaded. "Not good." She mumbled and fell down to her knees. She used the fire stoke as a support so that she wouldn't face plant into the hardwood floor. She had stood up too fast and got lightheaded because her heart didn't have enough time to pump enough blood to her head. With the lack of oxygen in her brain, her muscles had become temporarily weakened and she fell. Those moments are short and are quickly fixed with about ten seconds of rest.

Sly, Bentley, and Murray rushed over to her side.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sly asked.

Chloe, confused and obviously frightened, saw her blacking-out vision return to her, and she shakily stood back up. She looked around at the three and took several steps back. "You're all…all…animals!" she yelled.

"Yes…we are…?" Murray said in an uncertain voice.

Chloe immediately looked down at herself. She was still human. She then looked up at Sly, blinking once slowly. She was trying to figure out if she was dreaming or just simply hallucinating.

"What are you?" Sly asked. Chloe was then broken out of her daze.

"Me? I'm Chloe Yolanda Virgil. Sorry for my poor manners earlier…I hope that I didn't frighten you. Though I'm pretty darn sure that I did…."

"No, I mean _what_ are you?"

"As in…species?"

"Yes."

"I'm a…human," she reached a hand out to Sly and extending her index finger. She touched him on the snout, just above the nose, "yet you're a raccoon."

"Yes…I am a raccoon. And, mind me, but did you say _human?"_

"Yes."

Everyone at that point started chuckling a bit.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Humans aren't real…are they?" Murray said. "They're just in fairytales, right?"

"Fairytale?" Chloe inquired. "No fairytale am I."

"But…but…." Bentley stuttered, "B-b-but…humans don't exist!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Humans are mythical...they've only been in fairytales…you can't possible be a human," Sly said, grabbing his cane from off the ground.

"Then do a blood test on me. I'll come up as 'species unknown," Chloe said and relaxed herself.

After a while, the raccoon said, "Guys, she's not kidding. She really is a human."

"But how? How did you get here?" Bentley asked.

"I don't know…I don't know how I got here. One moment I was upstairs in my bedroom and the next I wake up here," she said and started twiddling the fire stoke around.

"Humans are also said to have special powers," Bentley informed.

She flashed her eyes to him. "What kind of powers?" Chloe asked and continued to spin the fire stoke.

"I don't know…just powers."

Chloe thought of that for a moment. "How did I get here, anyway?" she mumbled to herself. She currently was not believing her eyes, yet she was conceiving the fact that she was in another world. A world that she had no clue as to how it came to be, but a world nonetheless.

She looked back up at Sly. "Anthropomorphic raccoon…anthropomorphic long-necked turtle and hippopotamus…what the heck?" she yelled. "I don't get it."

"What are you talking about?" Sly inquired.

"How did I get here? Why am I here? Did I just…no, that's not possible…is it? _Magical_ powers?" she muttered. She looked over at Sly and had an idea pop into her mind. "Give me your hand," she ordered.

"My hand? Why?" since he asked the question, she grabbed onto his hand instead. His outfit was much different than in the game.

She faced the direction that he was in. She compared the underside of her arm with his. The vein lines in the wrist were in the same spot. "Same physical feature," she said and gave him his arm back. He looked so much realer in this world. His neck was as thick as it should have been, he had the muscles that he should have had, and he was actually _furry_ and not just painted one color with shadows. There were folds in the clothes like how there should have been, and everything was just…_real_…and not comic-book styled or cartoon-ish.

She figured that she was either dreaming or this was real. But if she _was_ dreaming, then why did she feel herself fall and why could she feel Sly's soft fur?

* * *

**Freeport, Maine: **In the state of Maine in the United States, there's a town called Freeport which is apparently known for it's shopping outlets. It's also Chloe's hometown.

**Spongebob Squarepants: **This is a show aired on Nickolodean and has been showing since 1999.

**Within Temptation: **This Dutch band's music varies upon the album. Sometimes it's rock, sometimes it's symphonic metal, sometimes it's just metal, and it's also a favorite band of Sly in thise story.

**Author's Notes:**

**Eh, some parts in this are ****cliché, but please just bare with me ;) I hope that this is better than the other version I had of it.**


	2. Reconnaissance

**Well, I kind of abandoned this story for a while. I hope that I'm making people happy by writing this chapter XD I've completely restarted the series to make it go in the direction that I want it to go in.**

**Disclaimer: I make no claims to owning Sly Cooper 1, 2, or 3, or anything that has to do with it, such as it's characters. I've only played the games, please don't sue! I do, however, own Chloe. She's mine. You can't have her. Take her and I'll give your butt.**

**Enjoy the newness :)**

* * *

"Hey, Sly, you know I can't just go around being human and everything," said Chloe as Sly strolled into the room, twiddling his cane around his hand. "Do you have a fursuit or something like that?"

"Actually, I was just going to ask you about that." He motioned for her to ensue him and had a wry grin on his face.

Sly opened up the closet and said, "It's a little old…and dusty…but it should fit you, and if it doesn't, we'll have Bentley fix it."

"Volunteering your own friends, huh?"

"He wouldn't mind." He pulled out a neatly-folded costume and brushed it off. "I haven't used this in years. It's getting really old." He unraveled it and Chloe saw that it was a gray-and-white wolf fursuit, similar to one that she saw in an anthro convention a couple years ago. She took it from Sly an regarded it. The fur was quite fluffy, but she might be stifling hot in something like that.

"I'll go put it on," she said and left the room, making a straight beeline for the bathroom. Once inside she locked the door and unzipped the back of the costume. "I really needed this for Comic Con." She slipped herself out of her clothes and examined a few of scars and the laceration on her shoulders and back briefly. They were all fine and, thankfully, none of them had reopened. She wanted to make sure that she wouldn't leave a bloody mess in their bathroom, for not only would that be embarrassing, but also would lower her ego. Then she had difficulty trying to put the disguise on; it was the equivalent to a stretchy wetsuit. Once she finally went through the problematical task of getting it fully on, and after nearly breaking the zipper a dozen times, she appreciated the fact that the fabric was breathable like nylon and stretchy to a point of comfort and fit her body snugly to fit the curves of her body. She put on the head piece and discovered that it had countless tiny metal pieces that were used for both support and enabling the wearing to do facial expressions. She decided to play around a bit and did a flirtatious expression, then an angry expression, then a saddened one and was satisfied with the design of the costume. It was working so well with the expressions and making her look like an actual wolf that she couldn't help but smile to herself. Even the plastic that covered the eye pieces made her eyes look real and glossy instead of being rendered flat. Hopefully no one would notice that they didn't blink.

She put her clothes on over the suit and stepped out of the bathroom. She did her mad-scientist laugh and said, "It fits perfectly. Who made this, anyway?"

"Bentley." Murray said as he arrived in the room.

Chloe looked over at Bentley and said, "I didn't know you were so skilled in things like this."

"Well, thank you. I tried to make it the best I could. I'm actually quite surprised that it fits you because it's really meant for Sly." He grabbed his crossbow and set in a pile of darts, which immediately made Chloe feel nervous. She had a lot of bad experiences with needles in the past. Sly noticed the sudden change of her mood and gave her a quizzical look, but before he had time to state anything, Bentley spoke up after putting his crossbow in its holder on the back of his shell.

"Well, Chloe, since you are here I feel inclined to tell you what exactly is going on. The three of us are thieves and we have a target; an iguana named Dimitri. He's a nightclub owner and has something that we want."

"Um…"-she blinked at him a few times-"…you're going to steal from another thief?"

"Yes."

"That sounds…unlawful. What exactly does he have?"

"Tail feathers." Sly said and crossed his arms, wrapping his fluffy tail around his right leg. "They're from an old enemy of mine. These aren't just ordinary tail feathers from any ordinary bird; they're metal ones that are designed to last, and they need to be destroyed."

"Oh, so it's a nobility thing."

"In a way, I suppose so." Sly said and uncrossed his arms.

"I'll be honored to aid you three if you need so."

"We have three satellites set up across this area of town," said Bentley as he fiddled with something that Chloe couldn't identify because of the lack of light, "and you and Sly need to turn them on. I'll send the codes. But before that, first things first; can you climb buildings?"

"I've played Assassins Creed and I climb trees and rocks…and I would mess around on the roof of my house…I'm pretty sure that I can scale a building."

"We'll see about that," Sly said with a small grin as he opened the door and stepped outside.

It was strange; in the game, Paris was non-linear and comic book styled, but now it actually looked like Paris and was real with sturdy-looking building and features that were actually present and not just painted on. Although one building did have painted flowers on it as a mural, but that doesn't count much. A few people (or animals, rather) were walking outside, some of them solo, some of them strolling arm-in-arm while exchanging conversations. The people were normal sized and weren't freakishly big like a warthog on steroids. A curvaceous leopard wearing a black skirt and a green halter sauntered her way by with a man who was a black panther wearing a tuxedo. His white whiskers easily stuck out against his dark fur as his yellow eyes shifted to Chloe. He quickly averted his gaze once his girlfriend began speaking to him in French.

They walked into a secluded alleyway and Sly looked up at an arched window that had bricks sticking out as handholds. He ran a small ways up the side of the building and, once he couldn't go any higher due to lack of momentum, he grasped the outcropping bricks with his hands and scampered his way up to the top.

With her mouth slightly ajar, Chloe whispered to herself, "He couldn't do that in the game."

Sly looked down from the rooftop and said, "You coming or what?"

"I might be a while."

"I'll wait." He went out of sight.

Chloe didn't know how to run up buildings, so she jumped and caught onto one of the footholds. There was just enough room to stand on the tips of her boots on the outcroppings. It reminded her of climbing rocks, so once that thought came into mind, it was easy for her to make it to the top.

Once she hauled herself onto the rooftop, Sly said, "That was good, but I think that you need to get a little faster."

"Yeah, I definitely do," she stood up straight and brushed herself off.

"The first satellite is up there," Sly said and pointed with his cane to a relatively high building that made Chloe somewhat nervous. That was daunting. "If you don't think that you can make it up there, you can wait down below."

"No, no, I think I can make it."

Sly took off in the lead and Chloe had difficulty keeping up with him. When he jumped across a chasm between two buildings effortlessly, Chloe prayed that when she leapt she would land on the other side. She almost stopped herself when she began doubting her abilities but quickly realized that that would most certainly decrease her chances of making the jump.

She sped up a bit and kicked off from the building that she was on. It was like flying for a split second and for a moment, once she started falling, she thought that she misjudged herself and was going to plummet to the streets below. Her heart began to sink along with everything else on her inside as she thought about splattering against the ground. Relief took itself over when she landed on her feet but tumbled over herself several times until she came to a halt.

While she collected herself, she heard Sly laughing quietly as he offered her his hand. She took it and pulled herself up, saying, "That was probably the most frightening thing I've ever done."

"You'll get used to it."

"Oh yeah; famous last words." She started sprinting after him and watched him use his cane to grasp onto a street pole. After that, he vaulted himself from his place and caught onto the edge of the building, quickly pulling himself up.

Chloe stopped in her tracks and frowned, eyeing a nearby ladder. Deciding to blow off the street pole, she climbed down the ladder and found another that lead up to the same building that Sly was on. Once she rejoined with him, she commented, "Too cool for the ladder, huh?"

"Ladders take too long," he cavalierly jested. "But they are efficient."

"And safer."

Sly smiled and jogged to the satellite, opening up a panel. He brought a hand up to the communicator near his ear and said, "Alright, Bentley. What's that code?"

"Is Chloe still alive?"

"Of course I'm still alive!" Chloe exclaimed loudly in order to make sure that the turtle could hear.

"Well that's definitely positive." Bentley said, making Sly chuckle a bit. "Alright, the code is 3-5-4 9-0-8."

Sly pressed the buttons to the key pad and the satellite suddenly changed its direction to the nightclub not too far away. _"Parfait,"_ Sly said and stood up in triumph.

"Well, that's one down, two to go." Chloe said and looked around the rooftops for a moment and spotted the next one. "Would that be number two?" She motioned to it and Sly followed her line of gaze.

"Do you think you can make that one?" Sly asked.

"We'll see. Hopefully I won't fall and plummet to my death. I'm not a fan of that."

"Same here."

They swiftly made their way to the next satellite. Chloe sprung herself to an adjacent building and skittered to a stop in front of the satellite. She opened up a panel and waited for Sly to announce the numbers. She was actually having fun running across the buildings and was surprised that she hadn't killed herself yet due to lack of experience.

The third satellite involved a bit of building-climbing. Sly latched himself onto a pole that ran its way up the building but Chloe had to jump onto a recessed window and find footholds for her to climb on. She was thankful for the half-gloves that she wore, for without them her hands would be scarred up with broken flesh. Though her hands were completely fine and intact, her arms were beginning to tire from hefting herself repeatedly. She had muscular arms but they weren't accustomed to this kind of strenuous work.

As she expected, Sly was waiting patiently at the top. He offered her his hand again and she took it, pulling herself up. Both of them were catching their breaths but were smiling to reassure the other that they were okay.

As Sly turned around to the satellite, he said, "Getting tired?"

"A little." Chloe replied and took in a long breath of the cool air. Due to light pollution, she couldn't see the stars well, but upon looking at all the lights of the buildings and the Eiffel Tower that was off in the distance, she appreciated the view and began to understand why so many artists get inspirations from this city. It was beautiful at night, but it couldn't quite compare to Manhattan on Chloe's opinion.

She was broken out of her muse when Sly voiced, "Alright, that's the last one. You did a rather good job." He stood up and turned around to her. "You said you climbed rocks?"

"Free-handed, actually. They weren't sheer cliffs or anything; just some rocks down near the beaches, but they were rather big. One time a rock got loose and I fell and dislocated my shoulder, but I usually never got hurt or anything."

He did a pained expression. "Dislocated your shoulder? That's rather serious."

"It happened a couple years ago and made my left arm a little weaker than my right, but I'm fine now." She rolled her left shoulder around for a moment before they began to descend the building. Once on the ground, Chloe began to relax and she felt more at ease to have both feet on solid floor.

A large, broad-shouldered, muscular warthog with massive tusks wearing a dark-blue uniform while smoking a cigarette walked past them. Chloe was intimidated and thought to herself, Man, that guy is huge! She figured he must have been one of Dimitri's guards, but he wasn't the Sucker Punch design. He was proportioned correctly and didn't have legs the size of matchsticks or arms the size of Mack trucks. She spotted a gun hanging off of his belt but she reckoned that it was probably just for looks to make him seem tough. He eyed both of them for a moment with beady black eyes but continued to his destination.

"I would stay away from people like that, even if that's stereotypical," Sly said quietly to her. "He's most likely employed to Dimitri."

"Yeah, he kind of scares me. I'll steer way clear of them."

"Good." He eyed an alleyway and led them into it. He brought his hand back up to the communicator and listened to Bentley's voice.

"Nice work, you two," the turtle said in that nasally voice of his. "I'm downloading from Dimitri's mainframe as we speak."

"All in a night's work," the raccoon said coolly. "So, what's next? Should I drop Chloe off or should she come?"

"Is she up to it?"

He looked at her and opened his mouth to speak but before he said anything, she stated, "I'm game."

"I guess that's a yes, then." Sly replied.

"Your next job is to take some reconnaissance photos of the Clockwerk Tail Feathers. To get inside, you'll have to sneak through an old wine cellar beneath town."

"Roger that," he said and turned the communicator off.

"Eew, wine's gross. It tastes disgusting." Chloe said.

Sly laughed. "Aren't you a little young to drink that?"

"Yes, I am, but I had a sip of it one time and I don't understand how people can drink it. Clears out sinuses, that's for sure."

"I don't particularly care for alcohol either."

"What's the legal age in France to drink?"

"Eighteen, and I'm twenty, but I still don't like it. Reminds me of horseradish."

"_Horseradish_? How on earth does it remind you of _horseradish_?"

"Because it's so strong," he said while attempting to stifle a small laugh.

The wine cellar turned out to be on the opposite end of town near a black-watered canal. It was a small door and was hardly noticeable, possibly designed that way to make people think that it was a mere storage room.

"And just how are you going to open this thing without a key?"

Sly fumbled around his pockets for a moment and pulled out a bobby pin. He straightened it and stated to mess around with the lock.

Chloe smiled and said, "No way, you're going to pick it open?"

Right as she finished the sentence, the door opened and Sly said, "Ladies first."

"I take it you've had some practice?"

"Fourteen years of it." He closed the door behind them.

The interior was simple and made of wooden walls and wooden floors and random barrels and crates stacked up in large quantities on each other. A few tables furnished the room along with a couple chairs, but other than that and the few dim lights, there wasn't really much.

They met up with Murray who was standing behind a large stack of crates to avoid being seen by the guards. Sly put on a concerned look and thought to himself, Maybe I should have left Chloe back at the Safehouse anyways.

"Hey guy and girl," the hippopotamus said. "I guess the way through the wine cellar is guarded by those rats. Bentley thought you might like some help clearing 'em out.

Chloe got to get a few glimpses of them and saw that they all varied in height and weight and-quite frankly-all looked cute as baby chinchillas. They were all wearing matching uniforms, which consisted of black-and-white striped shirts, beige pants with black boots, and red berets.

"I'm a little worried for Chloe, though."

Chloe frowned. "I know how to fight, ringtail. I'd like to partake in a brawl, just as long as we're not…you know…killing anyone."

"What would make you think we'd kill anyone?" Sly inquired.

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just saying."

At that point, they must have been heard, because a rat spotted them and yelled something at them in French. Chloe grabbed the closest inanimate object near her-a wooden pole, conveniently-and threatened the rat with it. "Bring it on, rat-brain!" At that moment, all the rats in the room started approaching them.

When she looked to her left she saw Murray lifting a rat off of his feet by the collar of the shirt and punched him thrice in the stomach, ending with an uppercut. "EAT IT, SUCKA!" He exclaimed and wheeled around, punching another rat square in the jaw with enough force that he probably broke both joints. The rat was dazed for a moment before being thwacked on the head by Murray's fist. He spun around again and picked up the rat, then slammed him into a table and pummeled him.

Sly was agilely running around and dodging the rat's blows. He jumped to avoid his feet being swiped from under him and whacked him in the head in his cane. The dazed and stunned rat loudly fell to the ground while he tried to register what just happened. Sly whipped around and thrust his cane forward into a rat's stomach, battering-ramming him into a wall. He could hear another rat behind him and ducked, feeling satisfied that his enemy accidentally punched his comrade in the face and knocked him out. Sly grabbed around the rat's neck and started strangling the creature.

Chloe was a little different. As a guard charged at her, she swiped his feet with the long weapon and wasted no time in jousting another. While she fended them off with the pole, one of them came up from behind and started running at her. She speedily turned around and caught him off guard. She whacked him about three times until the rat grabbed onto her weapon and prevented her from utilizing it. She let go and got into a fistfight with him.

The rat swung his fist at her head and she ducked, seizing him around the waist and lifting him. She hurled him into the ground and stomped on him beneath the stomach, only to have him catch onto her foot. Once she roughly hit the ground, she kicked him in the head with her boot and he became flaccid.

Chloe hastily got back to her feet and avoided another rat who was grasping something that looked similar to a war hammer. As he swung at her again, she caught his arm and whipped him around, breaking the joint of the elbow in a direction it just simply was not meant to go in. The rat squeaked and she grabbed onto the hammer he held, swinging it at his jaw. She heard it crack before he went unconscious and laid sprawled on the ground.

Chloe looked over at Sly and saw him being outnumbered. She aimed for a rat's head and threw the hammer, but only hit him on the back, alerting him that she was now engaging him in a fight. With an angry visage at her, he started sprinted towards the girl.

Once they were face-to-face, they delivered swift blows to each other, but neither of them prevailed. Then, finally, Chloe slapped him with both of her hands to stun him, kicked him in the back of the knees, grabbed onto his head and knocked him out with her foot.

Sly flipped over another guard while Murray picked up a small table. "Sly, duck!" The hippopotamus yelled and chucked it. Sly looked in his direction momentarily and wasted no time in going flat on the ground.

The table hit the three guards with such force that it practically splintered apart and they went unconscious. With them finished, they both looked in Chloe's direction and saw that she broke the knee joint of her last opponent and quickly struck him on the head with a unlit oil lamp. The glass shattered and the rat fell on his side, bleeding profusely from the cut he received. All of the guards would live and would be alright, but their casualties proved that they really needed to take karate lessons.

"C'mon, let's tie these guys up," Sly said and grabbed a rope hanging from a pillar.

Chloe walked over to them and noticed that all three of them were trying to get their breathing under control.

"You okay?" Murray asked and wiped a bit of blood from her face.

"I'm fine. It's not my blood, I swear," Chloe said and used her sleeve to clean her face.

After they gathered all the bodies and tied them to a pillar that supported the wine cellar, a few of the guards began to regain consciousness. One of them muttered 'that wolf's a bitch' and had himself slapped, as well as getting everyone else gagged.

Once their work was finished and after Sly placed a calling card next to them, the scene was rather comical.

"Hold on a moment, let me lower those bars for you two," Murray said and walked over to a lever, using what seemed to be all his might to lift it. The iron bars of a barrier lowered but they would still have to jump over it. He grunted and said in a strained voice, "Alright, you two get over this gate. I can't hold it for much longer."

Chloe looked up at it and hefted herself over, followed by Sly. Once separated from Murray, the hippopotamus let go of the lever and relief clearly washed over himself. "Looks like your on your own from here," he said.

"Ah, I'm used to it, but this time I have help," Sly said and ruffled Chloe's hair.

They proceeded to walk down a long hallway and were confronted with by a guard blocking their path. They stuck to the walls and hid out of sight until the huge man passed. Silently, they crept away and remained wary of anyone else's presence.

At the end of the hallway (and after dodging three more guards that honestly looked like they were on steroids) there was an air vent that they both had to climb into. Of course, it was dusty and appeared to be unused, but eventually led into a room that was definitely used for dressing-up actors. Expensive clothes were elaborately hanged and mirrors with make-up boxes next to fancy costumes said that it was recently used for a nearby theatre.

"There should be an air shaft in the room somewhere that will lead into Dimitri's mainframe," Bentley said.

"Found it," Chloe said and motioned to what she deduced was an air shaft.

Sly went up first, scuttling his way to the top like how a climber would in a rock chimney. Chloe quickly ensued and copied what he did. After what must have been seven minutes of crawly around in the filthy place, there was a sudden drop and they both carefully made their way out into what looked like an observatory room. There were large windows that showed where Dimitri was using the tail feathers to counterfeit money.

"You're at the heart of Dimitri's base of operation!" Bentley exclaimed but made sure that he was quiet enough so that no one else but them could hear.

"Good god," Chloe said. "This place is huge."

She heard a soft click as Sly took a picture of a large generator.

Chloe squinted and could vaguely make out the sign on it. "Caution, please do not blow up generator." They both started laughing quietly. "What the fudge? I'm pretty that's just common sense."

"Little humors like that are always pluses on the job," Sly said and took a picture of the money printer and the Clockwerk tail feathers.

Off in the back of the room, they could see a very tall, lanky, violet-colored iguana with long nails wearing an unfashionable green suit while smoking a cigarette. "That Dimitiri?" Chloe stated.

Sly took a quick picture of him. "What a handsome-looking guy," he said sarcastically.

"I think he needs a beauty parlor," Chloe jested and stood up with him.

They took the same way out as they got in.

* * *

Both of them strolled into the Safehouse with looks of triumph. Bentley was preparing what appeared to be a slideshow and Murray was already half asleep on the couch.

Sly's happy-go-lucky mood suddenly changed and Chloe heard him mutter, "Ah great, another one?"

She would have said something but Bentley turned around to address them. "Good work, you two."

"Thank you for commending us," Chloe said and made a gesture with her arms.

"The recon photos are a grim reminder of what the modern thief is up against," Bentley said and started the slideshow. Sly appeared to be listening but inside was bored, Murray was even more asleep, but Chloe was attentive as she would have been in science class. "Spotlights, patrols; the sum of it all renders a direct assault impossible." He used a yellow marker to circle the large peacock sign that showed the entrance of the nightclub and scribbled it out. "To solve this puzzle, I'm going to need some more intelligence. First, we'll need to replace a painting with one Dimitri has in his office so that we can listen in to communications. Oh, and, if you see the boss, tail him. We might learn something studying his movements. Once we've got a proper understanding of the operation, those Clockwerk tail feathers are as good as ours."

"That's cool…going to bug someone's office." Chloe said with amusement in her voice and elbowed Murray to wake him up.

Bentley turned around said, "Don't be mistaken; these are a nasty bunch of people and would no doubt not think twice if you're in their way."

"So I'll stay out their way."

"Exactly. Maybe you should stay here a while. You know, wait until there's something you could do."

With a small amount of disappointment, she agreed and watched Sly whisper something to Murray, and they both left.

Chloe crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling as if suddenly interested in its paint.

"Chloe, if you don't mind, I…uh…" Bentley began to say but obviously didn't know how to put the sentence together. "I'm rather curious. About you. I mean, you're a human and we didn't even know that they existed."

"Is there something you want from me?"

"I was wondering, if it's alright with you, if I can have a blood sample...?" He noticed how she went ridged right away.

"S-s-sorry, I'd really rather not. Needles and me don't get along well. I'll give you a piece of hair, though." She took off the headpiece of the fursuit and broke off a piece of her hair.

"That's alright, I understand. I just thought that I would ask."

"It's fine." She gave him a smile.

* * *

**Assassin's Creed: **Assassin's Creed is a video game for the Ps3, PC, Xbox360, and a special for the PSP. It's about an assassin during the Third Crusade (1191) and Chloe is a fan of it and keenly watched how the protagonist, Altair Ibn La'Ahad, climbed buildings.

**Horseradish: **Not everyone would know what this is. It's a type of strong, greenish spice that seriously cleans out the sinuses. Never have more than a pinch or you'll be in pain. I'm speaking from experience.

**Mack Truck: **For those who don't know, Mack Trucks are usually big trucks (used to describe the arms of the guard).

**Fursuit: **It's an animal costume. You'll find them in Anthro/Furry conventions.

**Author's notes:**

**I thought that I would add in a few things, such as different climbing and fighting methods to make it more…I don't know…realistic, I guess. Swinging a cane around is really fun in the game, but in the story it'd be redundant and probably not really effective in real life. And, since Sly's a thief, I figured that he'd be able to climb building in more than three ways.**

**By the way, Chloe isn't going to be one those pretentious mary-sue "Look at me!" girls. No, just NO. So don't worry about that :-)**

**Lots of foreshadowing }:)**


	3. A Day in Paris

**Sorry I'm taking so long to update. I've doing a bit of stuff lately ^^**

**Oh, and I apologize for Dimitri's completely wrong dialogue. I literally could not understand a single word he was saying other than a few, so I tweaked it a bit for the sake of the story.**

**Why Dimitri, why?**

* * *

Sly grabbed the small painting that was to replace the one in Dimitri's office and regarded it briefly. On the back of the stretched canvas he could see a diminutive black device hidden in the upper right-hand corner. He glanced at a large clock tower and saw that it was eleven at night, giving him plenty of time to pull the operation off.

He nonchalantly sauntered his way to the building and held Dimitri's office, all the while keeping a cool grin on his face and winking at the passing ladies to ensure that suspicion wasn't going to be aroused. Of course, making good-looking women laugh was a small enjoyment boost, as well.

Sly slipped into an alleyway out of sight and wiped the grin off his face. He looked at the wall and tried to find any footholds that he could use to climb to the windows. "C'mon, wall, it's just you and me here," he said quietly to himself before eyeing a streetlight. An idea came into mind and, after double-checking that no one was looking, put his cane in his mouth and swiftly climbed up the pole. He perched himself on the top and vaulted to a balcony's edge, swinging as he caught onto it. He hauled himself over and began to make his way across the edge of the building by using a small ledge that was just barely wide enough for him to stand. Pressing himself against the wall, he quickly made it to the next balcony, then the next, and then the next until he reached his target-building's glass 'awning.' Dimitri was either haughty, stupid, or cavalier, for the window was unlocked, didn't have an alarm, and had no screen. Perfect for a thief's convenience.

Once inside, he silently closed the window and tiptoed cautiously to the stairwell that lead down into a vast expanse of what looked like a formal restaurant crossbred with a nightclub. There were fountains in the center that separated one half from the other, a large fireplace with exaggerated features in the southeast corner, blue carpeting covered with blue stars, and countless tables draped with a blood-red cloth that matched the expensively-carven wooden chairs. In the corners were bars where liquor was served and, most of all, there was a clear path off the ground that would serve as an entrance to Dimitri's office, since it was most likely under lock-and-key. And, like any joint, there were guards patrolling, but the rats may have really just been janitors considering the fact that they were cleaning up after what appeared to be an out-of-control bash.

Sly brought Bentley up on his binnocucom and listened to him say, "The schematic indicates that the door to Dimitri's office is locked from the inside."

"That's alright. I never was one for the direct approach." He heard Chloe voice 'you can say that again' in the background and chuckled to himself.

"Swell, because the indirect approach…"-he motioned to an overhead balcony-"…is way up there, through that air vent."

"Perfect. How's Chloe holdin' up?"

"Dandy, JUST dandy. I could sing 'Sound of Music' right about now," Chloe said from the other end.

"Can she actually hear me?"

"She's proven to have the hearing of a fennec fox, so yes, she can…from the other end of the room." Bentley said.

"Can't hide gossip from a fennec," despite how distant her voice was, Sly could still make out the words.

Sly laughed quietly and turned the binnocucom off, being careful to cling to the shadows out of the sight from the janitors/possible guards. With a quiet running start, he jumped from the edge of the balcony and used his cane to swing himself onto the top of a large pink-marbled statue. After landing on the point of the statue's head, he vaulted himself onto a set of suspended movie lights and balanced himself on the top, using whatever caution he could to reduce the clanging into small rattling. He stilled and looked below at the rats but none of them had heard the noise.

With a sigh of relief, Sly jumped to the next suspended movie lights after noting the fact that he was thirty feet off the ground and landed near the air vent that would grant him access to his destination. After silently removing the cover to the air vent, he got on his stomach and started to crawl his way through. Once he could see Dimitri's office, he surveyed it before coming out into view to ensure that no one was inside. Fortunately for him, the only other living creatures that were present was an impressive aquarium displaying several exotic fish.

Sly quickly found the picture and took it off the wall, replacing it with the bugged one. Just as he was about to make his way out, Dimitri's voice came out over an intercom.

"Dimitri comin' at you loud and clear. I've got excellent news; spice sales have been going up, up, up! With the spice in every hometown special being ordered it's been a large success, as well as the big money-making room. With the cats in bags rolling like this, we can ALL retire early, now peace-out."

Sly scratched his head and thought to himself, What did that guy just say?

Sly was easily able to leave the building the same way he got in, and as a plus, the stolen painting would give them a few coins on the side. After all, he had been needing an extra pair of shoes for quite some time now…

* * *

Chloe decided to fascinate herself with the rafters and was broken out of her continuous staring when the door to the Safehouse opened up.

"Chloe die of boredom yet?" Sly said as a jest and presented the painting.

"I don't know, I've been trying to figure out what the paint on the walls is made out of," Chloe joked and eyed the painting. "Are you going to sell that?"

"I plan to. Besides, I could get some new clothes."

"_You_ need new clothes? Look who's talking, I only have this," she said and stood up.

"Can both of you_ please_ be quiet?" Bentley said while he calculated something. "This is important."

"Of course, sorry," Chloe said and gave an apologetic smile.

Sly motioned with his head to his bedroom and Chloe quickly followed.

After he closed the door, Sly said, "Okay, I suppose that there's a few things we need to figure out that we should have asked beforehand," he paused as if to contemplate what words would be appropriate. "When Murray returns…and before Bentley has a mental rampage with the stress of whatever he's doing…we need to figure out where you'll sleep, and as you said before, you need another pair of clothes. But do you have any allergies? Or take any medications?"

"Umm...I'm allergic to penicillin and I have asthma."

"Asthma? What kind of inhaler do you take?"

"Uh…Albuterol, I believe."

"Oh…that's simple." He smiled.

"Why?"

"Because that's what I take."

She gave him a quizzical look as he moved to his bed and grabbed a book from underneath the mattress. "You have asthma?"

"Yeah, but it's not bad. Is yours bad?"

"I think it was in the middle. But I can exercise and not have difficulty breathing, but regardless of that, the stupid people at school wouldn't let me participate in gym. Morons." She crossed her arms and put on a frown. She then remembered how she didn't want to be some sort of pretentious mary-sue and quit her unnecessary complaining.

* * *

At some point, Chloe nodded off on the couch and awoke when it was seven in the morning. Sly had gone to bed long ago as well as Murray and Bentley, and one of the three must have pulled the blanket over her that currently kept her warm. She snuggled in more closely to the thick fabric and decided to wait for the others to wake up.

Two hours later, after Bentley and Murray had taken showers and the hippopotamus started cooking bacon, pancakes and eggs, Sly remained in his room most likely in the hopes of being able to lay in bed until the afternoon.

By Bentley's request, Chloe walked into his room and opened the blinds to his window. The light flooded into the room and Sly groaned, covering his head with the pillow.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" Chloe exclaimed and pulled the blankets off from over him.

His reaction was curling into the fetal position.

"C'mon, I know it's been a little under three days, but you know I'm going to pull you out of that bed if you don't get up right now."

"Five more minutes…" he mumbled.

"Nope, sorry. Up and ad'em, three-rings. Burning daylight, here." She grabbed onto his pillow and flung it onto the other side of the room.

After she left, he finally decided to get up and drearily walked into the kitchen, most likely lured by the delicious smells of breakfast. He yawned and asked, "What time is it?"

"Daytime," Chloe answered and watched Murray push the mountainous pile of cooked bacon onto a large serving plate. She turned to the raccoon and laughed, saying, "Nice hair, bed-head."

Sly rubbed through his hair (or fur) for a brief moment before Bentley finally arrived.

"Alright, we only operate at night," Bentley said as he set a package on the kitchen table, "which means that we have plenty of time to get you fitted, Chloe."

"I'm not even sure exactly what I need…" She said and contemplated. "Just an outfit or two?"

"Or three," Sly said. "A disguise here-and-there isn't a bad either, and since you're the only one who can swim, a swimsuit would also come in handy."

"Sounds like a plan," Chloe said as she sat down and thanked Murray once he set the plates on the table. She wasn't too surprised that he was very good at making pancakes from scratch and found herself eating three at a time, but what did surprise her was the fact that Sly ate like a horse. Five pancakes, a pound of bacon, and the equivalent of four eggs was definitely way more than anyone would believe someone as lean (perhaps even cadaverous underneath the shirt) as Sly to eat for breakfast. She wondered how much he ate during dinner.

Bentley, on the other paw, ate as peckish as a bird and had half of a piece of everything; half a pancake, half a piece of bacon (oddly enough), and what was probably half of a fully-cooked egg. Murray ate slightly more Sly and apparently prized his eggs after piling most of them in his plate.

After that was finished with, Bentley said, "I'm going to have you and Sly and Murray go out for the day; I still have things I need to work and catch up on."

"Alright, that's fine," Chloe said and shrugged her shoulders. "What time should we be back?"

"Whenever. We have all night."

"Alright," Sly said coolly. "Let's pile into the car and head downtown."

"Not before I grab my fursuit, with is soon to be my best friend," Chloe voiced and quickly head into the bathroom where she last left it.

* * *

Chloe couldn't help but stare up at the huge buildings in awe at their sheer size. She's only been to cities a couple times, and it consisted of Manchester in New Hampshire, Boston in Massachusetts, and Maine's capital, Augusta. But neither of those were anything like Paris. The white buildings stretched far into the sky, adorned with by flower boxes hanging high above the ground on the windowsills that the window-washers somehow miraculously avoided. Some of the buildings were more abstract-like, almost as if they were piece of an artist's masterpiece painting, and others looks rather shaggy or questionable in certain parts of town.

Many of the buildings had stores on the first floor where the apartments were accessible on the higher levels. The stores showed off flashy outfits and some of Paris's higher fashions, whereas other displayed works of art by various artists and other little knick-knacks and collector's items.

Other than the fascinating buildings, people were everywhere and, quite frankly, some of them were dressed in ridiculously expensive clothing. Chloe remembered reading an article about Paris and the fact that the private stores would have a coat that would sell for the equivalent of a thousand American dollars. That was a little steep. She suddenly hoped that they would be heading into a non-private, cheaper store, for she didn't want to make the gang spend a thousand dollars on her, never mind euros.

They eventually turned into a small, quaint clothing store with a front that was nothing but windows that displayed the entire shop. The front door clearly said 'Le Chien à la Mode,' but she had no clue what that meant. She only associated 'à la mode' with ice cream at a restaurant.

Inside where the brown carpeting welcomed boots and shoes of all sorts and the dark-red walls gave a warm feeling amongst the endless racks of colorful clothing, Chloe was lost and had no clue where to go, and she wasn't even three steps inside. "I was expecting a Wal-Mart."

"Wal-Mart's for wimps," Sly jested and lead them to the woman's section. "So what are you? Junior, woman's…I'm not good with things like this."

"I don't even know my shoe size," Chloe said.

"I'm going to guess and say junior's," Murray said and looked at her shoes.

"We'll see how well that goes," Chloe said with a small smile and patted him on the shoulder.

After realizing just how utterly terrible Sly and Murray were at helping her find correct sizes, and after embarrassing Sly a few times with rather strange remarks, thus embarrassing herself, she picked out an outfit with plain blue jeans and a regular white t-shirt that had some sort of specialized logo on it. It looked like an 'r' but could have also been an 'f;' it was rather indistinguishable. The other part were knee-length running shorts and a tight-fitting violet shirt. Sly forced her out of humor to get a shirt with an elephant that said 'BEWARE: trample at your own risk.' She didn't understand it but she agreed, then wondered why a shirt that had English on it was doing in Paris. And as a side note, she had serious difficulty trying to convert the European clothing sizes to the American clothing sizes.

Sly and Murray were both embarrassed to go into the woman's swimwear, so Chloe managed to find a swimsuit that consisted of short, black, tight-fitting swimming shorts and a black top that looked more like a day shirt but had material meant for water.

Upon walking outside with a few bags, Chloe remarked, "You make me feel terrible. The whole thing was nine-I repeat, NINE-hundred Euros!"

"If we went to the one next door it would have been two thousand," Murray said.

"But good god, man! Nine hundred? I'm surprised you didn't just take it. Then again…"

"Now, we wouldn't shoplift," Sly said, "unless if we really had to."

"Under what sort of circumstances?"

"Well, if we really needed a disguise and didn't have the money to get one, and it was really urgent, then we wouldn't have much of a choice."

"You're still a kleptomaniac," Chloe said and nudged him slightly.

They spent a large portion of the day sightseeing and enjoyed seeing Chloe in her absent-minded states. It was amusing until she stepped on a tiger's tail and he started hollering and swearing at her in French, but they quietly laughed it off and decided to go out for a lunch/dinner (lunner, perhaps?) at a small bistro. After having escargot (which made Chloe throw up) and after having about thirty cream puffs and éclairs, the sun was beginning to set and they headed back to the Safehouse on the eastern side of Paris.

* * *

"I am NEVER having another snail ever again," Chloe said and tripped over air, causing her to stumble into the room. Sly and Murray chuckled and she stepped on their feet.

"You ate escargot?" Bentley asked and looked up from where he was.

"I didn't know it was snail, alright? I also didn't know that cream puffs were full of creamy stuff and I made a mess." Chloe said.

"She didn't know what a cream puff was," Murray said somewhat dubiously.

"It's not my fault, okay? And what the hell did I just trip over?"

"Air, I believe," Sly said coolly and quickly averted his attention to Bentley and, before Chloe could reply, said, "So what do we have to do now that we're back?"

"Well, we have about another hour or two to spare, so feel free to do what you want," Bentley said.

"Need help with anything?" Chloe offered.

"No, no, I have it just fine. Thank you, Chloe." Bentley replied and looked back down at his paper, calculator in hand.

With that said, Chloe returned to the bathroom and locked the door, stripping herself of her fursuit and checking to make sure that her new clothes fit correctly. After seeing that they all fit well, she put on her day clothes and walked into the currently populated room.

"Well, with some time to spare, how about I teach how to climb better?" Sly said and crossed his arms, his cane still in hand.

"Yeah…that's a good idea," Chloe said with a nervous laugh. "Promise that you won't knock me off a building and let me plummet to my death?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he grinned.

Chloe rolled her eyes once her back was turned and they both left the Safehouse.

* * *

"It's simple," said Sly. "All what you have to do is just balance yourself. You said you surf, so it's kind of like that."

"Yeah, I didn't surf well, and I didn't surf often," Chloe said nervously and looked at the two-roped clothing line that ran from one length of a building to the next. It didn't even do so much as wobble when Sly stood on it, who was currently holding his hand out to Chloe.

"You did well on the bridge's edge; I'm sure you'll do the same on this."

"Yeah, but bridges don't move." She grabbed onto his hand and carefully stepped onto the wire. It swayed for a moment but she steadied herself and held her breath. "I feel like it's going to break."

"It won't break, trust me. And I've got you." He started inching away and unless if she wanted to let go of his hand-of which she honestly did want to let go, but didn't want to fall-she had to follow him. Coerced into doing it, she gradually started to make her way across.

Once they reached the other side after about seven agonizing minutes, Chloe felt like a trapeze artist. She also let out a large sigh of relief.

"See? You did good," Sly commended.

"You know I'm going to get back at you one day for this," Chloe said in a warning tone, but relaxed when Sly gave her a cool grin and motioned with his head for her to follow.

He spent three hours teaching her the basics of rope-running, climbing pipes, streetlights, buildings, and the rudimentary sliding down certain objects. Chloe had become somewhat tired and she swore an oath that she was going to make him pay but until then, she was thankful for his help. And even more so when something rather unexpected happened.

Dimitri was in sight, leaning comfortably over a railing near a boat in a large canal, smoking a cigarette, being as casual as could be. He apparently didn't see them and began to walk away in some exaggerated style clearly designed by himself that was obviously bad for the back, judging by the posture one's body had to be in order to execute it correctly.

Chloe gently elbowed Sly and whispered, "Should we follow him?"

"Think you can keep up?"

Chloe gave a cavalier smile at his grin. "I'd race you to the rooftops if I knew I had a chance at beating you," she said and began to depart for a nearby ladder that lead up a scaffolding that was currently abandoned due to the fact that it was now relatively late.

She took a little longer than him to get on top and it was then that she realized if she were seen by anyone other than Sly, she might be in trouble considering the fact that she was not wearing her fursuit. Then she figured that if someone else did see her, it'd be like a person seeing a dragon for the first time; they always thought that dragons were fake, and as long as the dragon left quickly, the person would think that they'd just be seeing things and would probably schedule an appointment to their doctor to change their medications. With that in mind, she relaxed slightly and followed Sly across the rooftops.

A minute passed and she found herself doing more extensive and arduous climbing than when Sly was teaching her and she was beginning to tire somewhat quickly from rushing herself to keep up. At one point Dimitri stopped in his tracks and turned around as if he was suspicious that he was being stalked or followed, and Chloe had to do a gutsy move and jump into a window (she could now be charged with breaking-and-entering) and Sly had to grip onto dear life on a ledge so thin that he was surprised he didn't fall. Then, once Dimitri turned back around after seeing no one, Sly got to a more stable and broader area of the building and Chloe jumped out of the bedroom's window, scrambling to the top.

Dimitri began to descend a small stairwell that lead to a practically invisible doorway due to the fact that it was recessed. Sly pointed out a key pad that Dimitri was eyeing but there was no possible way of seeing him type in the code because a canal was adjacent to it.

"Chloe, do you think…?" Sly began to say, but she already got the idea.

"Sure thing," Chloe said and silently but promptly dove into the water, making a sound equivalent to a fish jumping into the air to catch a mosquito or something of the like.

Chloe got herself into an angle where she could see the keypad but, not too much to her surprise, couldn't make out the numbers on it because of the distance and level of light.

The door swung open and Dimitri disappeared inside without looking behind himself.

Chloe cursed under her breath and hauled herself out of the water. She strolled to the keypad and tried to remember which buttons he had pressed. It was a simple keypad and went in numerical order from top to bottom, so the code he must had typed in was 3-6-5-4.

Sly jogged over to her and said, "Did you get it?"

"I sure do hope I did for the love of all sanity," replied Chloe.

Just as she finished her sentence, she could hear Bentley in Sly's earpiece.

"Nice work! That's always a bonus. My sources are saying that that door leads directly into an aqua piping room…that might be useful for the heist."

"So…it leads to something important," Chloe said calmly, then smiled. "That's awesome. I guess that we know one way inside now."

Sly looked surprised and said, "You could hear that?"

"Hearing of a fennec, remember?" Bentley said from the other end.

"Hey, how is it that you know exactly where we are?" Chloe inquired. "Do you have a map and targeting system, or something?"

"What'd she say?" Bentley asked.

Sly looked like he was about to laugh and repeated what Chloe said as they started to walk back to the Safehouse.

"Sly's binnocucom has a satellite tracker in it, and through a special system, I can see underground obstructions displayed on my computer. It looks like a tunnel and leads exactly to what I think might help us out a little bit."

"Really? That's impressive," Chloe said and put her hands on her hips.

* * *

Chloe felt like she was in hypothermia by the time they returned in the Safehouse and made an instinctive beeline for Murray, whom was currently half asleep on the couch. She sat down next to him (or against him) and tucked her feet in, waking him up fully. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Really cold…really cold…."

"And wet," he said and put an arm around her.

"Yeah, we had a run-in with water again," Sly said and crossed his arms, cocking his head slightly.

"If you're going to get warmer I suggest the blanket," Bentley said, "because right now I need you, Murray, to head directly to the door Dimitri just entered. I believe a little sabotaging to the room might come in handy."

Murray stood up and Chloe grumbled slightly, reaching for the blanket folded over the arm of the couch. She quickly snuggled into it and laid down, feeling Sly sit down next to her. He lounged back and put his feet on the coffee table, pulling his cap over his eyes and crossing his arms with his head back.

For some reason, even though it would have been very early back at home, Chloe found herself falling asleep quickly.

* * *

**Fennec fox:** For those who don't know what a fennec is, a fennec is a species of desert-dwelling fox commonly found in the deserts of North America (I suppose in some areas in Africa, as well) and they have gigantic ears to help keep their bodies at a cool temperature and to also hear their prey. It's pretty neat, actually.

**Chloe's dive****:** When Chloe jumped into the water to get the code, I wasn't exaggerating. Some people cut through the water inside of jumping into it, resulting in a sound that is similar to a jumping fish, instead of splashing (according to my dad I don't make much of a splash either ^^).

**'Sound of Music:'** If memory serves me right, 'Sound of Music' is a somewhat famous musical/movie that has some rather cheerful music in it. As word to the wise, don't play it around someone who's grumpy ^^

**_Le Chien à la Mode_:** In French, it basicaly means 'The Dog of the Fashion,' but in English it's the equivalent to The Fashionable Dog, Dog Fashion, the Dog of Fashion, etc. In restaurants, à la Mode means that a meal comes with ice cream, hence why terrible-at-French Chloe associated it with the delicious desert. So evil...

**Author's Note(s):**

**So sorry about the late chapter ^^, And it's not even that long! And I personally that this chapter was a little choppy here-and-there but I do hope that it will suffice :-) I do, afterall, aim to please.**

**And, also, the first time I had a cream puff, I didn't know that they were filled with cream, either. Yeah. That was really intelligent on my end. I made a small mess, but it's quite comical now.**


	4. Dimitri's Bad Day

**Alright, I need to note that there's no Sly/Chloe. I had this problem with another story of mine, so I'm just going to point out that the fact that Sly is romantically interested in Carmelita is just way too much fun to change to my own character. Besides, it'd be unfair and boring. I think we all love the fact that he chases and runs away from a cop that utterly hates his guts. Her and Sly will just be close friends, as well as Bentley and Murray.**

**So there is no Sly/Chloe. I don't think there will be a Chloe/ anyone in this, actually. But I have a whole evil plan of torment for her }:) **

**Eh, she might loose a limb or two once I'm done with her.**

* * *

Sly skillfully jumped from building-to-building to his destination. After climbing up a hotel's side onto the rooftop, he paused briefly to observe the city's horizon and subconsciously walked forward to catch his breath after the strenuous 'workout.' He was startled when he saw a black figure from the corner of his eye and instinctively brought his cane up high to defend himself if he had to. Then the figure stepped out of the shadows and the moonlight shone upon her.

Sly relaxed and remembered her. The leopardess had been the constable Carmelita Fox brought along with her during their heist in Cairo, but Sly ultimately gave both of them the slip. She looked rather pretty with her pink fur and light violet strips, and her very short brown shorts and blue halter-like top. On her back was a whip and on her feet were two knee-high boots that fit snugly to her legs.

"Hold it, Cooper," she said.

"Constable Neyla," replied Sly. "Another policewoman hot on my tail."

"Please, I led you here," she added casually and showed to be no threat.

Sly remembered what she had said back in the museum in Cairo, the fact that she sounded as if she had hinted something. "So that Klaww Gang slip was a clue," he said. "Why are you helping me out?"

"I'm not as black and white as Carmelita," Neyla said, allowing him to hear the full extent of her English accent. "I know what a menace those Clockwerk parts are and I don't want the likes of the Klaww Gang putting them to use."

"So…what? It takes a thief to catch a thief?" Sly said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Something like that. But, if I'm going to trust you in this case, I need to know…if you can keep up…literally."

"Literally?"

"Don't fall behind," she said sternly, then sprinted off without warning.

"Hey, wait!" Sly said and was forced to give chase after her.

He sprinted as fast as he could have possibly gone and leapt over a high chasm of two buildings, landing gracefully on the adjacent one. She was already far ahead and he had to dash to keep up with her. When she jumped and skillfully ran across a suspended rope, Sly ensued and continued running after her.

The chase lasted about eleven minutes until she stopped in the courtyard of a large, rather fancy building with music that was blaring so loud on the inside that Sly could feel and hear it from where he was standing.

Both of them panted for a few seconds to get their breathing under control, then Neyla turned to him. She praised him by voicing, "Well done, Sly. We should work well together."

"Glad you approve."

"Now, legally I can't enter Dimitri's nightclub without a warrant…but I happened to have obtained a key to his backdoor," she motioned to the large entryway behind herself. Some backdoor. It was more like a friggin' architectural masterpiece that should have been the Smithsonian's entrance. "Which a person like yourself can use however he pleases."

"Oh, we are _absolutely_ going to work well together," Sly said with a boost of confidence.

Neyla smirked and sauntered away, handing him the key as she gently brushed past him.

* * *

Chloe's jaw dropped. "So you're going to have to technically bomb the place…with a disco ball?"

"Not 'bomb,' I suppose. What it'll do is cause a vibration that will loosen the moorings on Dimitri's peacock sign of his nightclub, where, once the water to the front fountain is turned off, will break the ground into the printing press room beneath it."

"Man, you're a genius. How do you figure these types of things out?"

"With special technology, it's made possible. Anyone with an ambition strong enough can achieve anything."

"Well said. It's true, too." Just as Chloe finished, Sly walked in through the front door.

"I bare a gift," he said and waved the key, flashing it in front of himself as if in triumph. "It grants us access into Dimitri's nightclub, if we use the backdoor."

"Fortune favors us today," Chloe said in a preppy voice and straightened her previously stiff posture after being hunched over Bentley's papers and large diagrams. "Turns out Bentley and I have to go there, too."

As if on cue, Murray arrived right after she finished her sentence.

A few minutes later, and Bentley had another of his trademarked slideshows up and he was presenting. So she and Bentley would have to bomb strategic locations in the nightclub that would weaken the large peacock sign. The sign will fall when water pressure is turned off to the center fountain, a hole will be produced, and there will be the boss battle with Dimitri. Chloe was just afraid that she wouldn't make it out of the building in time, but if she can sprint a mile in three minutes, she can sure as hell make it out of a falling building. Things were beginning to get a little exciting now that she was taking part in aiding the gang. She at least knew that if she were to be a hindrance or an encumbrance on the gang, she'd be only a small one since she can already manage for herself, and because of that, they'd have two extra hands to help them out.

"…after that's dealt with, the Clockwerk parts will be ours," Bentley said and finished up the slideshow. Chloe wasn't even positive why he even went through the troubles of making one in the first place. Maybe it was just to get everyone's attention, but that didn't work so well on Sly and Murray's part.

"So how exactly are going to destroy something that suppose to be indestructible?" Chloe asked.

"We'll find a way," Sly said and sat upright. "What matters is that it'll be in our hands."

"Plus unlawful production of monetary units will be ceased," Chloe said.

Sly tossed her the key and she caught it, stuffing it in one of her pockets.

"If my sources are reliable," Bentley began, "the nightclub should be closed by now, giving us easy access into it. I just need to make a few more adjustments to cut the cameras offline…."

"I thought that nightclubs were open all night," Chloe said.

"Yeah, you'd think," replied Sly. The raccoon then eyed the same fire stoke that Chloe had used while she was freaking out the first day he found her. He grabbed it and handed it to her, saying, "Use this until we find something better."

"Thanks. Maybe I'll brain our enemies now," she replied sarcastically and flipped it around in her hand.

After a few more minutes, the brilliant turtle somehow managed to switch the cameras off even though they were nowhere near the nightclub. She left with him and both of them hastily made their way to the nightclub.

* * *

Bentley nervously fumbled around with the key and opened the door. Chloe turned around after checking that they weren't in sight of anyone and quickly followed him, quietly closing the door. Now they were both standing on a blue-carpeted balcony that overlooked a gigantic disco ball, a huge dancing ground where large speakers were meant to blare music, as well as smaller balconies that gave a full view of the extravagantly decorated place.

Chloe gawked at the large tapestries and beautifully-carved pillars as well as the expensive furniture and got a sinking feeling when she thought to herself that they'd have to be destroying the pillars.

Bentley took out his green binnocucom and Sly began to speak.

"Hey, how're you holding up in the field?"

"Fine, fine, I'm just fine," the turtle replied quickly. "We just need to bomb all the pillars supporting that disco ball and we can get out of here."

"What a sec; you've never done a job before?" Chloe said.

"I apologize Chloe, but I really just needed you to come along because I can't pull this off myself and we have a deadline and you've proven to be rather athletic and you're apparently quick-thinking so I just -" he began speaking so fast that it sounded like utter gibberish.

"Hey, it's alright, I won't let you done," he replied calmly with a smile. "We'll just do what we need to do and not get crushed in the process."

"Chloe…" Sly said from the other end.

"Sorry, but it's true!"

She heard him sigh.

"So what's with taking out the disco ball?" the raccoon asked.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Bentley sounded rather matter-of-fact and dropped his arm by his side. "Look, we can't talk now, we gotta keep moving."

"Alright. See you back at the Safehouse," Sly said and went off the binnocucom.

Chloe heard the sound of someone's feet and went still, holding an arm out in front of Bentley to stop him from walking forward. She turned her head to the side and saw a dreary-looking night guard turn the corner of a hallway and began to walk down their path.

She grabbed onto his arm and forcefully shoved both him and herself underneath a table, which caused the turtle to literally retract into his shell. So Bentley technically turned into a rock and moved just like one and Chloe was like a neatly-folded box which put her in the utmost discomfort.

The guard stopped in front of the desk and his flashlight flickered for a moment. He shook it until it was completely on again and he ambled away.

Bentley snapped out of his shell and grabbed his crossbow, putting a dart into the spring-loaded mechanism. He aimed it at the guard and released something that sent the tranquilizer flying through the air, hitting the guard beneath the thigh. He was surprised for a moment and yelped quietly, but he started to stagger and falter in his step. In a few seconds he was up against a wall and unconscious.

With the guard dead to the world, they both crawled out from under the table.

"Thank you, Chloe," he said and brushed himself off. He was clearly more nervous than a person with stage fright giving a speech that was to be heard by an audience of eighty thousand people in a stadium.

"C'mon, we should be quick," she urged and would have motioned to a pillar if she knew which one he was going to bomb. She subconsciously followed him while keeping an eye out for any guards that might see them. It may have been dark inside the club, but for all she knew, the patrols had night-vision goggles and no flashlights while being dressed in black clothing, rendering her eyes useless to spot them. But what guard would go to that extent? They'd be labeled 'paranoid' for that.

Chloe kept her back turned to Bentley as he fumbled around with the first pillar and the bomb, getting it set in place. He was surprisingly quick and they both ran to the next pillar, and Chloe surmised that his intention was to set up all the bombs and use a detonator to make the pillars explode all at once. It was a smart idea, granted the roof doesn't give way and the entire building falls. She trusted that Bentley was careful enough to know where to bomb and not, but it was still risky business, and why he wanted her to tag along was probably out of psychological stress.

Bentley was now working on setting up the fourth bomb. Chloe clutched the metal stick in her hand and saw a guard's flashlight come into view once the warthog rounded the corner that semi-hid them. He spotted them and reached for the gun in his back pocket but Chloe had already thwacked him on the head (knocking out a few teeth in the process) which ultimately caused him to turn around from the unexpected force. She jumped on his back, using her weight to drive the fire stoke against his neck, strangling him until he went unconscious. Bentley picked up his pace at the quiet commotion behind him while Chloe brought him down to the ground. The warthog reached for her, then the table where there could have been something to hit her with, but his vision was giving way and he went flaccid in her arms. Before they left, Chloe ripped a piece of a blanket off and gagged the unfortunate guard, tied his hands and feet, and dragged him behind a low-lying red couch placed in front of a coffee table that was probably worth two thousand euros.

"Chloe, if they do an investigation on this," Bentley began, "forensics are going you find you responsible, you know."

"No it won't. I don't exist, remember?"

As they fast-walked to the next pillar, Bentley gave her a quizzical look.

"I don't have a social security. My birth wasn't recorded. If it was, I'd be in a science lab now, right?"

"That does make sense," the turtle said. "The fingerprints wouldn't match up."

"And they won't believe the guard, either. It's like someone saying 'hey, a unicorn gagged me.' They won't listen to him."

"For once, not listening is a positive thing," the turtle said and began to set up the next bomb.

Once that was finished, she and him sprinted silently to the entrance and stopped in front of the doors. Bentley took out the small, square detonator and nervously pressed a button.

There was a cloud of dust with a small boom as the bombs went off and the pillars cracked, loosening the large disco ball. The suspended ball swayed for a moment before crashing down on the floor and shattering, and Chloe couldn't help but notice the shockwave that went with it. Instead of pondering, she found herself rushing the turtle out of the door and, for adding safety, they sprinted away a few blocks before the police arrived.

Stopping in an alleyway to catch their breaths, both of them started laughing at Bentley's success. Or rather, their success. Sly came in on Bentley's binnocucom and said, "Wow, Bentley. We felt that all the way back here at the Safehouse! And you were right; the peacock sign had half of it's bolts pop off on impact."

Bentley sighed relief and slid down the wall. "Yeah…we're going to head back right now."

"You did pretty good for your first job," Sly said. "Erm…second, I suppose."

"Second?" Chloe inquired.

"We did a heist in Cairo, but I didn't do much," Bentley answered.

"Bentley, trust me, you did awesome on that job," Sly said. "If it weren't for you the guards would have gotten to us."

"Hey, instead of commending each other, how about we head back before the police find a turtle and a mythical animal carrying arsenal with them roaming the streets of Paris?" Chloe said.

Bentley stood back up and said, "That's a good idea. I'm a little shaky from doing that."

"But the explosions were sweet, and it was a mission successful," she said with a small amount of enthusiasm.

* * *

Back inside the Safehouse, where Murray was off doing another one of Bentley's plans to ensure that the heist will be a success, Sly was running on a treadmill and stopped when they arrived. "Good to see you're still alive," he commented, looking at Chloe.

"Oh, whoop-de-freakin'-doo. You seem to have a thing with me and death being in the same sentence." She rolled her eyes with a smirk and put her hands on her hips. "Want me to jump off a cliff next?"

"Wouldn't dream of it." He stepped down from the treadmill.

"Would you, really?" She smiled as he walked by and punched her on the shoulder, breathing deep, quick breaths to get his breathing under control.

Chloe glanced at the watch on her wrist and saw that it was two in the morning. They had about three hours left to do any more missions before things became suspicious. And, judging my Bentley's papers and diagrams, he planned to get it in done tonight.

"So, Bent, what else?" Sly asked.

"Oh, we'll just wait for-"

Before he even finished his sentence, the brute of a hippopotamus burst through the door. Since he was panting, he had obviously been running, and the sweat on his skin made him shine in a funny way in the white moonlight. "Alright, those alarms are all battered and busted like eggs in a beater," he said and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow.

"Alright. Looks like things are set up and good to go," Bentley said and checked the darts on gun for a brief moment before proceeded to pour over his papers and contemplate. Before long, he had another slide show set up. "Okay fellows," he began and flipped to the first image, only to see that it was upside down, so he had to flip it again. "The dominoes are all in place." With the image corrected now, the once Leonardo da Vinci styled words now read 'OPERATION THUNDERBEAK' in bright yellow letters. "Time to pull off the big heist. First, Murray will help me break into the old water tower. From there, I should be able to shut down the plaza fountain,"-he elaborately scribbled out the fountain-"and Dimitri is sure to send someone out with a repair truck. Sly, you'll pickpocket the truck keys once the guy shows up, then hand them off Chloe. Chloe, once you have the keys, give to me and Murray in the plaza while Sly makes a beeline to the peacock sign; we're running short on time, so things must go fast. We go steal the truck while you climb up to the top of the sign, Sly. When you're in position, Murray will fire the truck's line up to you and we'll use it to pull down the sign. If my calculations are correct, the impact should create an entrance to the printing press room. Then, Sly, you jump in, grab the Clockwerk tail feathers, and we all get the heck out of here."

"Well, sounds like a plan," Chloe said and sat upright. "Lemme guess; we do it quietly, right?"

"Until the sign falls, then yes," Bentley said and turned the screen off.

"Alright, we'll be at the plaza," Sly said and they all quickly made it out the door.

They sprinted to the plaza and climbed a nearby rooftop, waiting for the gigantic water fountain to turn off while keenly being aware of anyone entering or exiting the building.

They were up top for about twenty minutes before the water abruptly ceased to flow, and after a couple more moments, a large warthog left the building with a baffled expression on his face. He must have been the repairman.

They silently got back down the rooftop and followed the man. Once they were close enough, Sly motioned to Chloe to stay where she was, and she followed his order.

Sly crept down low and quite literally fished for the loop on the key that was slightly protruding from the guard's pocket. After a few tries, it caught, and he gently pulled it back. He quietly sprinted away from the guard and didn't stop after throwing the keys to Chloe. He got to the sign and scampered up a wall, leaping across a small chasm of about six feet and latching onto a small hook that suspended him. He pulled himself up and put his cane in his mouth, lithely climbing to the top by using a neon-orange light that ran it's way up to the summit. He perched on what couldn't have been a smaller pinnacle and waited, using his tail to balance himself. He saw Chloe running at an impressively fast speed to Bentley and Murray and exchanged the keys.

Chloe figured that the point of her transferring the keys was so that Sly would be out of sight quicker and would be ready in advance to catch the line that was to be thrown up to him. She didn't blame them for using the method, either...even if it did metaphorically force her to run a mile a minute.

Once the turtle and the hippo took off, she nonchalantly walked underneath the shadow of an awning and waited for them to return. She fiddled around with her fire stoke and tossed it from hand-to-hand in anticipation while her heartbeat slowed down to a more reasonable rate. Not only that, but she had butterflies in her stomach. She didn't quite understand why people call the nervous feeling 'butterflies'…it's more like a twist of internal knots that want one's recently-eaten meal out of their system. Luckily for her, she hadn't eaten for about eleven hours, and she already threw up after eating escargot, so she was most likely on the safe side. Of course, there is dry heaving…

She heard the screeching scream of tires and quickly turned her head in the direction of the noise, seeing a large pick-up truck come to a halt after the brakes were slammed.

Murray was focusing on the control of the wrench line. He pressed a button and the grappling-hook-like line sprung out from where it was and headed in Sly's direction. The raccoon reached to the right with his cane but it careened off to the side and he missed. Murray did an exclamation of, "Aw, cupcakes! I'll try again," and shot it off one more time. Sly managed to grab it with the hook on his cane and latched it onto the top of the peacock sign.

"The hook's on, pull away!" Sly said and jumped onto the rope, somehow managing to slide down it all the way to the truck.

Once he reached the ground, he heard voices and footsteps and saw several guards running at him. "Oh, Jackie Chan…" he said just as Chloe arrived at his side.

"Jackie Chan? I would have said Sylvester Stallone," she said and rose her self-proclaimed weapon as the first front of guards pressed on them.

Sly went low to the ground and rammed himself into a guard, knocking him off of his feet while forcing him to go unconscious after whacking his head with his cane. He whipped around and brought another rat into a headlock while swiping three more off of their feet. The rat in his grip went flaccid and passed out from lack of oxygen and Sly let go of him, proceeding to knock out the other three rats while they were still stunned.

Chloe whacked a rat so hard on the jaw that it broke and he went down in agony on the floor. There was a loud 'crack' as she spun around with both of another guard's arms in her grasp, dislocating both of his shoulders to render his arms useless. She was a little more open-minded when it came to fighting, thus resulting in her breaking her opponents down to the ground instead of whacking them in the back of the head. She wasn't actually quite sure how to knock them out.

When the last rat fell to Sly's cane, the peacock sign came off of what was left of its moorings and fell with a loud, crashing BOOM.

As Bentley had predicted, there was a large, gaping hole in the ground beneath the fountain. The smell of paper and ink was quick to pervade the air, giving the cue that the plan had worked and they could enter the premises.

"Behold, the power of gravity and inertia!" Bentley exclaimed as he and Murray stepped out of the truck.

"That was real, subtle, Bentley," Sly said coolly and stood up straight.

"Okay, you jump in, grab the Clockwerk tail feathers, and we're out of here!" the turtle said.

"Klo, why don't you come along?" Sly said and looked over his shoulder to her.

"Klo? Great, that's my new nickname…come on," she said and urged.

They jumped down the opening to the printing press room and, lo and behold, stood Dimitri near the large machine that was printing thousands of euros a minutes that was also placed on a balcony. There was also a large amount of steam.

The purple iguana saw them and said, "Gah! So, Racoonus Doodus…you're like, totally bumming my house up and bringing me down. So very un-cool. Why can't you just let birds and bees be fee, bro? And…what is that?" he looked at Chloe.

"Listen, Dimitri-you have no idea what you're playing with," Sly spoke up, partially in defense of Chloe. It didn't matter that the iguana saw her now or not. "It'll bring more than your house down."

"Look bro, I see that you are a tough cowboy…a man with taste…style…vision…a connoisseur of finer things. Like me. Look, I'm sure that three cats in a bag like us can work something out, yeah? We smoove, yeah? Look…see the money?" He gestured to the money being printed. "You like the money? You can take all you want. I can-"

"No deal," Sly shook his head with a small scowl and pointed to him. "You and the rest of the Klaww Gang _have_ to be stopped. Clockwerk will never again see the light of day. Just hand over the tail feathers and we can-" his cool sounding voice was abruptly interrupted by the ugly iguana.

"What is this with clocks, bro? Have you no vision? Are you hearing what I beam to you? You think you have juice? Don't show me a little mind when talking about such big things…you think you can swing the bat? Show your bling and let me shine you!"

"I have no idea what you're saying…"

Of course, the next inevitable line, the best out of the entire game in Chloe's opinion was about to be said. It was also going to bring on the brawl, but those four little words that evoke so much humor…she decided to join him in saying them and at the same time, everyone heard, "…and your suit sucks."

Dimitri looked profoundly offended and did a strange, screechy, inhaled scream and said, "Let's dance!"

The iguana was quick and wheeled around, running away at a speed that was much faster than Sly's or Chloe's. They chased after him and skittered to a halt when he whipped around, green suit and everything waving with the movement, as he pulled out a shock pistol.

Chloe pushed Sly off to the side as Sly also pushed her off to the side as well and they dodge a flying bolt of electricity. Sly went behind a strange container holding a green liquid while Chloe fell behind a huge stack of wooden crates. She heard Dimitri running towards them and pushed the stack in his direction, listening to a brief yelp as he got buried in them.

Sly instantly sprung out from his shelter and was on Dimitri in the heartbeat, both of them whacking each other with whatever they had.

Sly was small, alright? A cadaverously thin but lean person with slight built from his 'profession,' but easy to throw around. Dimitri was about eight feel tall and despite him being lanky, obviously had some training in fighting. Sly felt Dimitri pick him up around the waist and smash him into a pillar, where his breath escaped in one loud _whoosh_. He fell and rolled off to the side before Dimitri smashed his head. Once he was on his feet and turned around, he saw that Dimitri was struggling with something on his back.

Chloe pulled back to make him fall backwards while she strangled him with her right arm. The iguana staggered around and gurgled out words as he grabbed for something that he could hit her with, but never fell from the added weight. When Sly thrust his cane forward into his stomach, he toppled over and finally fell. Chloe got out of the way before he rolled over her and got to her feet, as did Dimitri, who now had a wooden pole in his hands.

Sly ducked to avoid being whacked and Chloe jumped to avoid being swiped, since the swing was diagonal. She grabbed her fire stoke and got into a sword-fighting stance. She took her swing and the wooden pole went flying out of his hands. He was quick to move and whipped around in a circle with his tail, knocking both of them to the ground. Instead of taking his chance to attack them both while they were off guard, he sprinted away to the computer controls on the printing press machine. Sly jumped after him and Chloe pursued until they came to a sheer metal wall that she would have to run up like Sly and Dimitri, of which she was incapable of doing.

Sly hauled himself over and whacked Dimitri over the head. The man turned into a lummox for a moment and fell backwards, falling off of the railing and into a trash can below where Chloe stood.

The racoon fetched the Clockwerk tail feathers and had a broad smile on his face as he jumped down the wall.

Winded and breathless, Dimitri squeaked, "You take Clockwerk feathers and my counterfeiting operation…it's past tense!"

"I'm doing you a favor," Sly said. "What kind of thief prints money? There's no honor in that."

"You…cracker box!" Dimitri said before he passed out.

Murray and Bentley arrived at the scene overhead and called down to them, throwing down ropes, which they gladly climbed to get back to the surface. A few minutes later an entire platoon of police came with their wailing sirens that stirred up the night. The four hastily got away unscathed as Inspector Carmelita Fox's voice broke through the microphone. "Come out with your hands behind your back!" she screeched like a hawk. Chloe wondered how she'd be as a mother if she was this intimidating at a crime scene she doesn't even know much about.

And people say their teachers are bad.

* * *

Dawn began to break once they reached the Safehouse, everyone having a newfound pride and confidence after their success. Sly set the Clockwerk feathers aside on the couch and sat down, saying, "Hey, how about we spend a week in Monaco?"

"Monaco?" the other three said at the same time.

"It's close, and besides…you guys need a break."

"You mean _you_ need a break," Chloe said with a smile.

"Not even the closest, Klo," he replied with a grin as he put his hands behind his head and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

Of course, Chloe knew better. Sly wasn't pretentious or greedy, and he actually wanted _them_, the three of them, to relax and have a bit of fun. She credited him for it; most other people would never suggest such a thing for others.

"I say we go," Murray said and looked at Bentley.

"I do have a new card counting formulae…" the turtle said and pondered.

"I'm all up for it, even though I heard that it's all a big casino," Chloe said.

"Alright…we'll pack for tomorrow." Sly said and closed his eyes.

* * *

**Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone: **If you don't know, these two guys are famous actors. Jackie Chan is my personal favorite, but Sylvester Stallone is Chloe's favorite. Sly just said Jackie Chan as an expression.

**Monaco: **It's a small, French-speaking country that, from what I've heard, has a lot of casinos.

**Smithsonian Museums: **For my internatioal readers who might not know this, the Smithsonian Museums are gigantic and have quite the impressive entrances.

**Author's Note(s)**

**Yeah, um…that took a very long time to write considering it was only thirteen pages ^^; I kind of abandoned it for a couple weeks…shame on me, I know, shame on me.**

**By the way, does anybody know the official name of Chloe's weapon? I just call it fire stoke because you stoke a fire with it…**


	5. Flight to Calcutta

**Hmm…not much to say here other than, if you like Justin Bieber, don't kill me. The references are purely for humor but, just so you know, I'm a fan of metal and Nightwish and Theatre of Tragedy, opera, and symphonic metal…not Justin Bieber. He's overrated. I don't have anything against him or anything, but just so that you don't fork me in the neck, I'm just going to say that ;)**

**Although me, like Chloe, originally thought that his last name was Beaver O_o …someone had to correct me on that…**

* * *

The week in Monaco was actually quite interesting. Bentley won every single round of poker with his new card-counting formulae, which Chloe didn't understand at all. They gambled with each other; winners got a cookie, and Bentley had all the cookies. Chloe also didn't understand how to play poker so instead she taught them how to play spoons and enjoyed watching Sly and Murray attempt to pry the spoon out of each other's grasp. They abruptly had to leave the casino they were in when a leopard lit up a cigar next to them and Chloe starting having an asthma attack, but after that they spent many hours at the beautiful beaches Monaco had to offer. They also got to splurge after that painting Sly stole from Paris sold and they got an expensive suite in a five star hotel. Chloe even had her own room with a canopied bed, so she was very happy.

Sly opened the door to the hotel room and let everyone inside. He regarded the red carpets and the warm, brown-colored walls decorated with several different paintings adorned by modern-styled lights. In fact, everything in the rooms were modern-styled, which added for a very warm effect.

"Aah, I'm going to miss this place, most definitely," Chloe said and looked at the fur of her fursuit. "If this is a suite, then I'd love to see a presidential suite."

"Eh, it wasn't worth ten thousand euros a night," Sly said. "We're not that rich."

"No kidding, a seventy thousand euro stay…leave that to Justin Beaver."

"It's Bieber," Bentley corrected.

"What? Really? Bieber?"

Sly chuckled. "You really thought his last name was _Beaver_?"

"Oh…well…in that case…leave that to Justin _Bieber_. He stayed at the presidential suite in the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas-it's actually called the Michael Jackson suite-which to say is twenty-five thousand dollars per night…and there's a minimum of a four night stay. Where the hell does a kid-A KID-get that kind of money?"

"I don't know. He's overrated," Sly said. "Seriously overrated, in fact."

"And untalented," Chloe added on. "I mean, he apparently thinks that he's some big-awesome talented person and he doesn't even write his own music! Or play an instrument!"

"Exactly, and I don't know why he's so popular…" Sly replied.

"Because people think he's hot."

"Well, that does have much to do with," Bentley said in his trademarked nasally voice and grabbed his laptop.

"Anyway, where're we going next, Mr. Workaholic?" Chloe asked to Bentley and was immediately hovering over the turtle's shoulder, watching the screen of the laptop as it quickly loaded up.

"My sources claim that the next Clockwerk part is Clockwerk's heart, in a deep jungle in India. Of course, I've only been looking a little bit here-and-there, but I believe his name is Rajan…."

"Whoa, we're going to India next?" Chloe said.

"Apparently, if that's where the next part is," Sly added and leaned against the back of the couch, looking at Bentley's laptop. A smile formed on his snout. "I guess we'll be eating curry every night."

"Stereotypical," Chloe said. "I've never had curry before, though."

"You've never had curry before?" Murray said and did an exaggerated gesture with his hands that made Chloe laugh. "You have not lived life! I'm going to make the most awesome curry you've ever had!"

"For what? Dessert?"

"Breakfast!"

"Eh…spices for breakfast?" she chuckled. "Maybe next time, big guy, though you are an astoundingly good cook…."

"Thank you," Murray said and smiled.

Once it was morning, the four of them got to an airport with the van. Sly and Chloe, the two of whom have become very close friends, went into the airport and got their bags checked while Bentley and Murray somehow snuck the van into the belly of their airplane.

While Chloe and Sly nonchalantly waited patiently in line for their bags to be checked, a frightening thought came to Chloe's mind. She tugged on Sly's long, black sleeve and said, "Hey, Sly, won't the metal detector go off because of the metal in my fursuit?"

He quickly looked at her. "You're right," he said and picked up his bag from the ground. "Let's wait for Bentley and Murray instead." He ushered her and himself gently out of the line. The length had since doubled after they arrived, so they might have to wait a long, long time once they all meet up. "If the metal will set the detectors off, there's got to be another way to get you by."

"We'll ask Bentley," Chloe said and crossed her arms as they now waited at the end of the line.

Murray, whom was disguised in a brown business suit with a fake mustache and black hat, and Bentley, disguised as a geeky, techno teenager, found them not twenty minutes later.

When they approached, Bentley said to Chloe, "Did something happen?"

"We forgot that Chloe's fursuit has metal in it," explained Sly. "I'd rather us not get caught, unless if we want to have our furless friend over here shipped off to a science lab."

"Oh, there's no need to worry," the turtle said. "The fabric is made to hide the metal, so you should be fine going through the detector. I apologize, I overlooked that…."

Chloe let out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank gods, I thought I'd have to crawl through a piping system." She also noticed how Sly relaxed at the news and they all got back into the line. "What is this fabric made out of if it can hide metal from metal detectors?"

"It's a special spin and mix of certain plants and fabrics too numerous to list," Bentley said. "I made it many years ago and overdid myself, but I'm glad to see that it's coming in use today."

It took them an hour of gradually progressing through the excruciatingly slow line, but once all of their bags were checked, they made their way to gate A18.

Sly sat down and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Great," he said. "We have another hour to spare." He sunk down in his seat and sighed. "And I have a very long time to sit in this outfit…"

"What's wrong with it?" Chloe inquired and took out a sketchbook from her bag. It was originally Sly's but he figured that since he didn't use it, she'd make use of it. The guy couldn't even draw a straight line.

"I don't like this material. It's really baggy."

"Well, at least you're not walking around like a penguin," said Chloe as she adjusted her tail slightly. She wished that she could move the damn thing; it kept getting in her way.

"Hey, guys, I'm going to go to the Subway and get a few things," Murray said. "You guys want somethin'?"

"Nah, I'm good," Sly said and closed his eyes. He apparently hated sitting around for long periods of time. Actually, that was rather evident. He wasn't even sitting for sixty seconds and he was already fidgety

"I'll have a peanut butter cookie!" Chloe beamed and gave him a broad smile.

Sly looked outside at the planes moving in and out. The skies were dull with grey clouds as the planes landed and took off, landed and took off. He prayed that it wouldn't rain, or else their flight might be delayed and that could mean sleeping on the floor that had been trampled on by thousands upon thousands of feet before. Either way, the perpetual motion was beginning to bore him so he instead looked at the news being broadcasted from a flat screen television not that far away. Something about a robbery in a museum, apparently. He smiled at the thought and closed his eyes again.

That painful hour finally killed itself and they were boarding the plane, much to Sly's relief.

* * *

Sly looked up from his iPod at the flight attendant offering beverages to the passengers. He noted her outfit and thought how pretty she looked before feeling a sudden weight on his shoulder. He turned his head to his right and saw that Chloe was unconscious from being tired, and head bobbing didn't do anything to keep her awake. He smiled again and leaned back a bit, politely refusing the option for a refreshment. The flight attendant rolled by and he looked out of the window. Murray and Bentley were off in the middle aisles while he and Chloe had the window seats. It was his request, after all. He was really liking Chloe, and she had a tendency to treat him like a brother.

He found himself nodding off when a sudden jerk in the plane woke him and Chloe up. The pilot came on the intercom, saying, "We're hitting some rough air here, so we advise that you please remain seated until stated otherwise. Thank you."

"What's going on?" Chloe said and yawned. She felt beyond tired and despite the feeling of sand prickling her eyes, she looked at her watch and saw that they still have to sit for about another four hours. So much waiting.

"Just some rough air," Sly replied and leaned his head back, staring at the red seatbelt sign. He turned up the volume on his iPod to try to defeat his boredom.

During the time that they were on the plane, he also got a chance to study their next target, Rajan. He was a mysterious spice-lord who grew up poor on the streets of Calcutta and sold illegal spices for a living. The small outfit turned into a sizable operation, which also allowed him to become a member of the Klaww Gang. He was going to hold a lavish ball in his palace to show off the Clockwerk wings. Rajan apparently believed that the wings would bring him more prestige that he already had, but whether or not they did, they'd also be attracting Sly and his gang.

The plane had finally landed in Calcutta and Murray got their baggage down. Poor Bentley had no chance in the world of reaching up to the overhead compartments.

Upon walking through the dank air in the gate out of the plane, Sly stretched a bit and yawned. He desperately wanted to just indolently flop down on a bed and crawl underneath the covers to sleep. "We're going to have to get a hotel," Sly said. "There's no way we can make it to the jungle in time."

"We could once it's dawn, but…what time is it?" Murray asked.

"Well, the time zones have drastically changed, so now it's nine o'clock at night," Bentley said after glancing at a nearby clock.

"Ugh…what about the van?"

"Murray, Bentley and I will take care of that," Sly said. "We'll find a place for you to wait."

Chloe was extremely grateful at not having to do anything to get the van back. She knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything right in such a thing, so standing by would be here current forte.

Somehow, the three guys got the van back without causing everyone to think that there was a terrorist attack and without arousing any suspicion. It must have been Bentley; the turtle was no doubt the valedictorian in all of the schools he went to, anyway.

When they reached the motel, it was midnight, and the first thing that was everyone's mind (other than sleep) was to check for spiders and any other little buggers that'd have most likely gotten into the room. The last thing they wanted was to have someone escorted to the nearest hospital.

After half an hour of cautiously checking the entire room, Chloe instantly fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. It was too hot and humid in the room so she left the blankets off and didn't even bother to look at who laid down next to her. It could have been Bentley; the bed didn't move much, but it could have also been Sly with his lithe movements. It definitely was not Murray. The entire bed would have sagged had it been him. But she honestly didn't care anymore.

* * *

Chloe's eyes fluttered open at the rays of light penetrating through the cheap blinds and saw Murray fixing up a brew of coffee for everyone. Bentley was just rising out of bed and was stretching his arms. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw Sly facing away from her. She also noticed how he couldn't have possibly been any closer to the edge of the bed than he already was. That was when she realized that she, too, was so close to the bed's edge that she was about to fall off. She didn't blame him for choosing to sleep with her; if Murray rolled over on him in his sleep, then he'd probably sufficate or get crushed, hopefully not the latter. Bentley was a little better suited because he has his shell.

She sat upright and stood, saying, "Are we heading to the boondocks today?"

"You bet we are," Bentley said quietly after seeing that Sly was still asleep.

"Coffee?" Murray asked, holding out a cup to her.

"Oh, no thanks, I don't drink coffee. Or caffeine. The last time I had caffeine I couldn't think straight. In fact, I guess I was bouncing off the walls."

"As fun as that sounds, how about some breakfast?" Sly said, just waking up, rolling onto his back. Everything underneath his diaphragm caved in and clearly exposed his ribcage when he stretched backwards, then returned to its normal state once he relaxed. "Hopefully they have pancakes. I could really go for some of those."

"Eh, once we find an IHOP, then we'll do that," Chloe jested and looked at her hair in a mirror, sighing loudly at its terrible state. "Ugh, stupid humidity always makes my bed-head frizzy hair even frizzier."

"Comb?" Sly offered and tossed on to her. She barely caught it and gave a playful glare before proceeding to brush out her midnight-black hair.

* * *

It was now somewhere around two in the afternoon and the van came to an abrupt halt in the middle of a muddy, rural road far from the nearest city ('nearest' as in one hundred miles). Murray turned the wheel as far as it could go to the right and drove into a small cave that offered shelter. The 'cave' was actually more like an indentation to a natural stone wall, but regardless of that, they still covered the van with sticks and leaves just to hide it from anyone who might possibly see it.

After the van was hidden, Bentley lead them into a house-like cave built into the same wall as the one that they used as a garage for the van. There was a slab of stone in the center that resembled much of a table and there were also several large openings near the front of the cave that had vines and sticks draping over it, slightly blocking out the view from the rest of the jungle.

Inside the gray cave were a few 'rooms' that peculiarly looked like they could have been bedrooms at a time.

"This cave was once a house," Bentley explained. "There hasn't been any occupants for quite some time now, so a little housekeeping might be necessary."

"Yeah, I can see that," Chloe said and brushed a hand over the table, marveling at the amount dust that accumulated over it. She then used the sleeve of her fursuit to clean it off, only succeeding in throwing the dust into the air. She used her hand to wave the dust away and said, "So I take it that this will be base, huh?"

"For now, it will be," Bentley said. "Now, as you may have noticed, the bridge to the citadel is up. Sly, you're going to need to climb the citadel's wall…of course, being careful not to fall into the water that serves as a mote."

"Alright, just tell me where to go and I'll follow it to the letter," Sly said and crossed his arms.

"I'll follow you on my binnocucom because it's easier that way. I can't spire-jump. Once you're ready, I'll tell you the first part of my plan," Bentley answered.

And with that, Sly was gone.

It was easy to find the citadel; there was even a cleared path that lead to it, but alas, the bridge was indeed raised and did not permit entrance. There was also a fast-flowing river that lead to a huge waterfall, and all what he could think to himself was, I hate water, I wish there was no river.

As he began to follow it upstream for a possible way to break in, a snake lunged at him from a nearby bush. He was startled and jumped back just before it bit him, and as a result of the reaction, he whacked it over the head with his cane. The snake retreated and he realized that he needed to be more careful watching where he stepped. Once his heart slowed itself down, he pressed on and walked through the muddy, brown-colored banks.

After a few minutes of careful observation, he found four pinnacles of rocks that he knew he could make it to if he jumped far enough. The rocks lead to an island that was close to a currently abandoned scaffolding on the citadel's side, and he found his way inside.

With extreme caution, he began to sprint forward and leapt before his feet touched the water, and landed perfectly on the point of the rock. He sprung himself forward again, and again, and again before reaching the green-grassed island that housed one tree and most likely poisonous animals. He was quick to brush his way through and leapt to a suspended vine, praying that it would not break. When it didn't, he put his cane in his mouth again and began to climb up, eventually reaching a point where he could be on something a little more stable.

Once atop the wall, he dodged any patrolling guards and silently slipped down onto a nearby rooftop, attempting to be as quiet as possible. He heard Bentley's voice over his earpiece.

"Sly, turn left and follow the wall until you find a path that leads through a small part of jungle," Bentley said. "It will lead to a room that's essential for a reconnaissance of Rajan's ballroom."

"You'd think the guy would at least be a little subtle to not show off the wings in plain public view," Sly remarked, remembering some of the things that he had studied on the plane ride to Calcutta.

"I know, right? Well, it makes it easier for us."

Sly found the path that cleared a passageway through a small cluster of trees and was met with a large, elaborately-decorated building that obviously belonged to someone with some real money. There was also the smell of smoke, for a fire was burning in a pit where two guards-one a mountain goat, the other a monkey of some sort-were sitting near, joking with each other. They wouldn't permit him to pass, no doubt.

Bentley came onto his binnocucom and he listened to him say, "The entrance to the ballroom is up at the balcony," he motioned up at a relatively high, empty balcony. "The only problem is that there's no way to climb up to it."

"Maybe I can use the trees," Sly said in a quiet voice to ensure that the guards wouldn't hear him, despite his distance. "I'll figure something out," he turned the binnocucom off and looked up at the nearest tree. There was a branch low enough for him to grab onto and he jumped, catching it with his right hand. He hauled himself over on the sturdy thing and carefully stood up, using other smaller branches as footholds to get the higher ones.

Once he was high enough, he balanced himself and cautiously walked across a chasm to another tree and vaulted to it, loudly breaking a few branches as he caught himself. He froze as the two guards below heard him and looked in his direction for a brief moment, but they apparently blew it off and figured that it was just an animal.

He tried to be more quiet as the branches allowed him access to that balcony, and once he reached it, he had to pry open a window to get inside. He tried to be as soundless as he could have possibly been, but the window hadn't been oiled recently and didn't want to yield to him without a fight.

Once inside, he was only protected from detection by a small room being guarded by two massive, colossal-sized rhinoceros guards holding lamplights that had their back turned to him. He had to make not even the slightest of sound, for no doubt they'd hear him if he even shuffled the slightest bit.

He took out his binnocucom and took in slow, steady breaths. He reminded himself that he was a master at thievery, and this wasn't much different. Carefully, he studied what he could see of the ballroom.

The first and most obvious thing was that it was huge, and definitely excessively spacious. Indoor balconies were ornately festooned with expensive silks and tapestries woven with golden thread on the fringes. In the center of the ballroom was a thirty-foot tall golden statue of some Hindu god, as he surmised, with six dancing arms and, more importantly, two Clockwerk wings bolted to the back. He zoomed the camera in and took a picture, waiting for it to arrive on Bentley's laptop. He still had no idea how the turtle did it; every time he took a picture, it'd be sent to his computer, where he could study it beforehand. He was always a genius.

Not before long, he heard the turtle saying in his earpiece, "Those wings look like they're welded onto the statue. And they look heavy…this, my dear friends, is going to be a real challenge."

Sly didn't respond, for fear of the guards hearing him.

He eyed an electronic winch attached to the statue and clicked the camera off again. He figured that it would be useful. Then, just out of pure luck, he saw Rajan patrolling along one of the balconies. He was an extremely tall man-taller than Dimitri, in fact-and was very muscularly built. He was holding onto a large staff that was thrown casually over his shoulder and was wearing a violet-colored hat that matched his stripes. That was what caught Sly's eye; the tiger had violet stripes, not black. With curiosity, he took a picture of Rajan.

He also saw a large but thin, lanky black spider-woman dressed in red that covered her thorax (the abdomen part of a spider wouldn't possibly be able to have a dress on it). Her long arms had some nasty-looking claws and her long, angular face had two large, red eyes. Her black hair was tied up in a braid and she appeared to be looking someone as she strolled around with her six lengthy legs.

He took a picture and Bentley immediately said, "That's the Contessa. A high-ranking prison-leader for Interpol. She must be working undercover to expose Rajan's spice reign."

He also saw a large bison ambling around with a thick cane. Bentley told him to quickly take a picture of him and said, "That's Jean Bison. He's a member of the Klaww Gang and a Canadian shipping baron. He practically owns half the transit in Canada."

Sly waited for a moment until he saw a pink leopardess and recognized her as Neyla. He was quick to take a picture of her, and then someone emerged at her side. A somewhat tall red fox with dark-blue hair wearing a curvy dress, and he smiled to himself. Carmelita Montaya Fox, the woman he loves, yet she hates his guts. He took a few pictures of her for his amusement, but once she turned away and left, he resumed his original work.

"Carmelita must be undercover with the Contessa to bust Rajan," Bentley said.

Sly whispered as quiet as he could have possibly done, "The lady next to her is Neyla; she's also a cop. She's who gave me the key back in Paris to Dimitri's nightclub."

"She di…wait, why didn't you tell us?"

Sly saved himself from the conversation by taking another picture of something very peculiar. There was some sort of strange machine with a couple moving parts that held a bird cage atop it, and inside was a parrot wearing a tuxedo with wings definitely too small to fly with. He was controlling his strange transportation apparatus with a joystick.

Sly took a picture of him as well and decided that before the guards found out he was there, turned around and silently left.

Outside in the humid air, the two guards had left the fire pit, probably about to change shifts with other guards. He realized that he had a small window of opportunity to get by without any trouble, so he leapt to the nearest branch of a tree and skillfully ran across it. Noise wasn't an issue this time, so, sounding like a tiger falling from a dead tree with thousands of dry sticks breaking all at once, he landed on the ground. He simply brushed himself off and snuck away from the house.

* * *

"Stealing the Clockwerk wings in the middle of a crowded ballroom is going to take some serious misdirection," Bentley said and looked at the pictures Sly took while everyone else huddled around the laptop.

"And all of those cops-Neyla, Carmelita, and the Contessa-only make it even more complicated," Chloe said.

"Exactly, but we might be able to use them to our advantage," Bentley added. "But no matter what we do, we're going to have to deal with Rajan's security chopper that keeps watch over the citadel. Murray can take it out with a few local armaments if we can't highjack it in the first place. But none of us can get into the citadel until the drawbridge is lowered. Sly, I'll leave that up to you."

"So just get the drawbridge lowered first?" Sly said. "Sounds easy enough."

"Oh yeah, famous last words," Chloe said and stood upright. "What about those wings? If they're welded, how's it possible to get them off the statue without making any noise?"

"That, my dear friend, is what troubles me," Bentley said. "I'll come up with something."

"Okay. We'll just wait here."

While Sly left to do the first mission, Chloe had her own time to reflect about the situation she was in. She wondered why she didn't think much about while they were making their way towards here, or while they were in Monaco…she slid the thought out of her mind and started to make a mental list of ups and downs.

On the downs lists, well it's a little obvious; SHE STUCK IN A VIDEO GAME. That's a biggie. She's the world's only human. No Mom, no Dad, no home. Well that's on the depressing side already.

On the ups list, no more having to take care of animals that try to amputate her limbs. No more going to school with morons, no more Veronica, no more limitations. The thought of 'freedom' then completely took over her mind. Freedom! Sure, she may be with a gang of thieves, but since she will soon be a thief herself, she can parkour however much she wants, go wherever she wants, whenever she wants, and can decide for herself what to have and what to not have. The freedom of choices seemed wonderful.

First of all, her school back in Maine always talked about 'acting your age' and blah blah blah blah, all of that essential crap. They wanted one to act like a young adult, but they do not TREAT anyone as a young adult. Away from that school, away from those hypocrites.

And the annoying campaign adds.

Anyway, freedom set her mind and she decided that since she's already there, and gets to explore the world, she could easily stay for a little while longer.

* * *

**My oh my, what explanation I have to do! I set aside for the story for a while for another one of mine ^^;**

**Yeah, this is a slightly shorter chapter…roughly about 4,750 words as opposed to my 10,000 word chappies ^^; Well, I hope that it was good enough.**

**P.S. I had no clue so many people like this story! I have to amp up the production :D**


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